There is no break for Denise Reddy and the Chelsea Women as they move back into the Champions League, returning to Kingsmeadow for the first match since a 3-1 win over West Ham United at the end of September. This time, the opposition is the nine-time Albanian champions, KS Vllaznia who are coming off a two-goal loss to Real Madrid, shutting the Spanish powerhouse out until the 54’.
Since the international break, the Blues have caught fire, and have not let up even though Emma Hayes remains at home in recovery. In Chelsea’s rain-filled clash with Brighton on the road, Reddy was able to rotate several of CFC’s stars, keeping them fresh for games like this during the mid-week and tougher competition ahead in the Women’s Super League. Knowing what happened in Wolfsburg last season, it doesn’t matter who is on the other side of the pitch, the Blues are no doubt going to take everyone seriously, especially in a talented field like the Champions League.
Following the win over Brighton, Paul Green spoke on the task ahead against a new Champions League opponent:
"“We’ve got to try and keep that momentum going and keep rolling out the wins, but each game is different. We now look ahead to Vllaznia, a new team we’ve never played before, first time in the Champions League. We don’t know that much about them so we’re getting up to speed with that, looking at the videos and making sure that we’re going to be ready for Wednesday at Kingsmeadow.”"
The Albanian side is making its first appearance in the Champions League and being picked in a group with this amount of quality quickly puts them into the reality of how different the competition is compared to what it is like in the Albanian top flight. Vllaznia sits atop the Albanian National Championship on nine points, netting an astounding 19 goals through just three contests in league play. In the previous two campaigns, Vllaznia fell short of the Champions League group stage by just one game, losing to Juventus 3-0 on aggregate last season, and Belarusian side Minsk the year before that.