A record home crowd of 39,398 watched a brave and aggrieved Chelsea endure the end of their Champions League dream at Stamford Bridge. A first-half goal from the mercurial Aitana Bonmatí, Kadeisha Buchanan’s controversial sending-off, and a questionable second-half penalty scored by Fridolina Rolfö denied Emma Hayes’s side a place in the final in Bilbao next month, and a perfect finish to her time with the Blues.
There will be questions asked of the refereeing, but a more clinical performance, akin to the first leg, would have made the officiating moot. Instead, this was Barcelona’s moment, again, their three shots on target resulting in the two goals that would seal their passage to a fifth final in six years.
