Chelsea boss Emma Hayes admits her side will have to play a "perfect" game to beat Barcelona in their Women’s Champions League semi-final.
Chelsea were thrashed by Barca in the final of the same competition two years ago, the Spanish side opening the scoring after 33 seconds and netting all four of their goals inside 36 minutes.
The Blues now have the chance to gain revenge for that defeat in a two-legged semi-final, but the 46-year-old acknowledges her side will have to be prepared to “suffer” against their highly-rated opponents.
“We know what Barcelona think of us and we're looking forward to the opportunity to show that for us as a team, our expectations for ourselves are that we're in these positions all of the time," Hayes said in a press conference ahead of Saturday's first leg at Stamford Bridge.
“We respect Barcelona, they play the best football in Europe and this is clear. We have to be perfect in everything we do but we're excited. It will be tough. We have to play a perfect game. We have to execute at both ends of the pitch to give ourselves the best possible chance.
“But it's a football match and there's two teams competing to win and yes, we know we have the advantage of being at home tomorrow, but we have as much possibility as we've ever had of qualifying for a final.
“My message to the players will be to give absolutely everything you can to doing that, knowing that a final is at stake and we're a team that are used to struggling.
“We know how to suffer, we're going to have to do that for a lot of the game but trust me, we have a dressing room that are motivated and ready to perform.”
Asked what lessons she had learned from that defeat to Barcelona in the 2021 final, Hayes said: “I always take any loss as a learning [experience] and I think the learnings from that night were significant for us as a club. I think you have to have that, you have to go through those moments.
“I'm pretty certain Magda [Eriksson] and I have had 1,000 conversations ever since then about how to keep raising the bar for our team and we've done that.
“I think we are as best-prepared as we can possibly be and I like the feeling of going with those experiences because we know what to expect. We're better off as a result of that night.”
Eriksson added: “That game is one of the motivations that we use, but just being back in the Champions League semi-finals is motivation enough for us.
“This is the tournament for us that we're extremely hungry for. Of course the final loss motivates us, but just the fact that we're in this game motivates us enough.
“I think the girls have had a really good training week and you can sense that it's something special. The team is very together and very ready for this challenge.”
Hayes revealed that England's Millie Bright will be sidelined for several weeks after a "clean out" operation on her knee, while fellow defender Kadeisha Buchanan is also unavailable due to an injury suffered on international duty with Canada.
Forward Pernille Harder is ready to return to action, but Hayes admitted the club would have to be cautious with the Denmark international given the length of time she has been sidelined following a hamstring problem.
