Aiming to leave last season’s demons behind: Chelsea v Vllaznia part II

Seven of the eight goals scored at Kingsmeadow being converted by two players tells the entire story of how dominant Chels’ was on home turf. Vllaznia managed just one shot, and three attacks through 90 minutes. Clearly, Leka’s team’s proficiency in the domestic league does not translate quite yet to the Champions League. Since its trip to southwest London, Vllaznia has outscored its league opposition 36-0, netting six or more goals in four of those seven league contests. In the Champions League, Leka’s side was able to prevent a breakthrough for the first 54 minutes against Real Madrid and frustrated PSG on their home field until it took the lead in the 39’ and never looked back.

The Vllaznia fans no doubt made their presence known at Kingsmeadow with the amount of support that made it 2,409 kilometers across Europe. There is not much hope for Leka’s side against Hayes and CFC, and after the west London side fell short of qualification in Spain, it would be quite a full circle moment to clinch a place past the group stage nearly a year since the infamous match against the Wolves in Germany. Most of this match is going to be mental for the west London club. On the road in a tough environment, and with the anniversary looming in its minds, the Blues must block out all the outside noise to take care of business.

Pernille Harder played a key part in opening up the Vllaznia defense back in October, but over the last few matches, the Blues have begun to understand what it is going to take to succeed without the Danish midfielder going forward. Given the way Jelena Cankovic played at Kingsmeadow against Reading, Hayes could see this as a chance to deploy her as a No. 10 for the second game running to see if she can produce another outing like that once again.