Chelsea earned a commanding first-leg lead in their Champions League quarter-final with a controlled victory over Ajax in front of a record women’s football crowd in the Netherlands of 35,991.
After a thrilling 3-1 defeat of Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Friday night, this was a less explosive performance but a well-managed one, with Lauren James scoring the opener and Sjoeke Nüsken scoring twice, mirroring Friday night, as Chelsea secured a fifth win in 16 days – five games into their eight in March.
“I said to the players at the end it was very professional in everything,” the manager, Emma Hayes, said.
Chelsea were unchanged from the team that defeated Arsenal in the league, with Nüsken again partnering James up top. Nüsken had played centre-back in the game preceding that, against Everton. “You see she not only belongs on the big stage, but she’s someone, no matter where she plays, she’s going to be equally good,” Hayes said of Nüsken. “She plays as a No 8 she’s equally good, she plays as centre half she’s just as good. In fact, I might give her a game in goal next week just to test it out.”
For the home team, Kay-Lee de Sanders partnered the 18-year-old Isa Kardinaal at the back with Sherida Spitse suspended, while the 16-year-old midfielder Lily Yohannes, Tiny Hoekstra and Rosa van Gool returned to the starting XI after being rested for the team’s midweek 5-1 defeat of Jong Ajax in the Dutch cup.
Hayes said her side knew how good Ajax were – this was a team that earned home wins over Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Roma at the Johan Cruyff Arena to earn their place in the quarter-finals. The manager said before the match that Chelsea “certainly won’t be going into the game with our eyes shut”, but they took time to get going and Ajax would go close in the seventh minute, with the club’s new record goalscorer Romée Leuchter hammering an effort off the base of the post with Hannah Hampton beaten.
Yohannes became the first 16-year-old to feature in a Champions League quarter-final since Chelsea’s Jess Carter, who featured at the same age – and the same stage – for Birmingham City against Arsenal in 2014, but a challenge on Guro Reiten led to her going in the book, ensuring she will miss the second leg at Stamford Bridge next week.
Chelsea dominated despite the early nervy moments, with 59% possession in the first half and 24 attacks to Ajax’s four and they capitalised on their superiority inside 20 minutes. It was unlucky for Ajax, with the ball taking a deflection to fall into the path of James behind them and the forward rifled it in. The flag was up but James was clearly onside and, after a VAR check, the technology introduced for the knockout stage, the goal was given.
Lyon, the record eight-time Women's Champions League winners, came from behind to beat Benfica 2-1 in Lisbon in the first leg of their quarter-final.
The French league leaders have not lost in that competition nor the Champions League this season but they needed a second-half turnaround to maintain that record. Benfica were making their debut in the last eight, and Andreia Faria gave them the lead in the 43rd minute after intercepting a stray pass on the halfway line and running through unchallenged.
The France forward Delphine Cascarino equalised in the 63rd minute and Germany midfielder Sara Dabritz headed home a cross from the United States captain, Lindsay Horan, for the winner in the 79th.
The second leg will be played on 27 March.
Chelsea thought they had doubled their advantage when Reiten miscued her header from James’s cross, saw the ball come off her heel and fall kindly for her to prod in. But after a long VAR check Nüsken was adjudged to have blocked Kardinaal from a possible clearance off the line.
After the check Hayes’s side had their two-goal cushion within minutes of the restart. Kadeisha Buchanan’s wonderful Cruyff turn was followed by a defence-splitting pass which found Reiten and the forward swung it in from the left for Nüsken to steer in from close range.
The second half lacked the bite of the first but Chelsea added a third in the 83rd minute when Catarina Macario, on as a substitute, delivered for Nüsken to nod in from close range.
Ajax battled to reduce the margin before their trip to London next week, but they were unable to find the back of the net, giving them a mountain to climb away from home. “As we say in the Netherlands: the ball is round so anything can happen,” the Ajax manager, Suzanne Bakker, said of their chances in the reverse fixture.
Hayes cautioned against complacency in the second leg. “It is only half-time,” she said. “Often when you go away, you win games like this, the brain gets a little bit relaxed, you go home and you see an opposite performance … I think we need to heed the warning and share that experience with the players.”
