Just a few days after Chelsea ran away with all three points at Walton Hall Park, the Blues will encounter its greatest challenge of the season to date. The last Champions League fixture Chelsea participated in left a sour taste in the club’s mouth, searching for answers, and wondering why an early exit was in the cards when the Blues fought all the way to the final in the previous campaign. Chelsea has to travel to The Stade Municipal Georges Lefèvre to take on the currently unbeaten Paris Saint-Germain for its first test of group-stage action.
While PSG manager, Gerard Precheur may have not been at the helm in Paris when Maren Mjelde netted one of the most historic goals in club history, Grace Geyoro and Ashley Lawrence will no doubt remember the result fondly. Both of them were on the PSG squad that lost on aggregate at the death just three years ago in the Champions League quarterfinal. From the history of this fixture to the fact that each team has one of the opposition’s former players, this matchup has everything and more for women’s football fans around the globe. Please now click below in order to continue the current article.
It will be just the Blues’ second contest without their passionate leader, Emma Hayes, but if the Everton game demonstrated anything, it was that the rest of the coaching staff was prepared to take on the challenge head-on. From nearly heading to west London at the end of the transfer window, Geyoro is going to see what the possibilities could have been if the French outfit decided to let her go. She was even rumored to have a desire to join the Blues, but there was never a price that satisfied PSG to intrigue them enough to move on from the French international. The future of the 25-year-old could very well be in a Chelsea kit sooner rather than later, but for now, the Blues are focused on the present because like last year, the quarter-finals are not a foregone conclusion.
For CFC, the focus should not be on the attacking side of things, rather on finding every way to prevent costly mistakes that could be decisive in a competition of this magnitude. Chances were no doubt missed at inopportune times against Everton, but it is unlikely that Pernille Harder and Lauren James will be found skying their shots over the crossbar at a consistent rate. Sam Kerr still needs to find her footing, and after she finished just short of her first Ballon d’Or award on Monday, the Australian could be motivated to add to her scoring total that only reads one through four WSL matches.
PSG’s backline has been inconsistent at best this season, giving up at least a goal in four out of its last five games. Despite beginning the season with back-to-back clean sheets, a 2-2 draw against the newly promoted side, Le Havre AC just a few weeks ago damaged its chances of challenging Lyon for the title. After netting two goals in the first 24 minutes, PSG was outscored by two the rest of the match against a side that finished with just eight points in its last season in the top flight. Considering all of this, and the fact that this ambitious French club is still without its most lethal scoring threat, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, the Blues on the surface should find a way to secure all three points.
With the talents of Lieke Martens, Geyoro, and former Blue Ramona Bachmann up top, PSG is not going to be as easy of an out as some may think with Katoto still recovering from an ACL injury suffered in the Euros over the summer. All three of them scored in the club’s win over the weekend against Dijon with Bachmann scoring in back-to-back games while Mertens has netted at least one goal in three out of the last five contests in all competitions.
No matter who is in the attack, PSG has the depth up top to fill in some of the holes that losing Katoto causes. From the young Sandy Baltimore to the clinical French international, Kadidiatou Diani, this is the kind of games Hayes brought in Kadeisha Buchanan for.
With both clubs playing over the weekend, the turnaround time is going to be relatively the same on both sides. The Blues are hitting their stride in the league at the perfect moment, setting them up with a healthy roster that has several players at the top of their game. Guro Reiten is a player to watch on the left flank once again as she continues to leave wing-backs in her dust with her dynamism and creativity on the ball. Jessie Fleming and Lauren James have both been impressive so far this season, with James looking to ride the momentum of earning her first start for the Lionesses over the international break.
The wait for Champions League football for the CFCW has now come to an end, and after an agonizing night in Wolfsburg back in December, the Blues get a chance to take their first step forward on their road to immortality in Paris on Thursday night. As a club, Chelsea has been one more often than not that flourishes when the moment is the brightest. With Hayes continuing to recover, the storylines from last season’s collapse will be floating through her head. Limiting controllable mistakes, and taking the opportunities when they come their way must be the focus for CFC against a team that has featured in the semifinals of the Champions League three years running.