Chelsea qualify for UWCL quarterfinals: takeaways from Albania trip

On the one-year anniversary of Chelsea’s elimination from the Champions League group stage last season, the Blues took one step closer to European immortality. In Chelsea’s first trip to Albania in club history, Emma Hayes and the Blues found a way to win against a defensive-minded Vllaznia, dominating both on the pitch and in the stat sheet. CFC’s only main focus after defeating the nine-time Albanian league champions 4-0 is to finish atop the Group A standings and bring as much momentum into the break as possible.

For the second straight match in the UWCL against the Blues, Nikolin Leka and his side failed to accumulate even one shot on target with the goal this time around to frustrate CFC by sitting back and conceding essentially all the possession. Almost everyone contributed in a positive way on the final road trip in 2022, and most importantly nobody suffered an unneeded injury with Hayes giving some key rotational players like Millie Bright, and Magdalena Eriksson a full day of rest.

From the Serbian Jelena Cankovic once again proving her significance in the midfield for the Blues to the Dutch defender, Aniek Nouwen demonstrating just how deep this year’s Chelsea team truly is, Friday night at Loro Borici Stadium was exactly what this team needed after a near collapse at Kingsmeadow in the second half last time out. With the confirmation of quarter-final qualification, here are the takeaways from a memorable night out that showed just how far this team has come compared to this time last year.