History will be made this weekend in Barcelona, as this is the first time in UEFA Women's Champions League tournament history that the same two teams have found themselves competing in the semifinal for three years in a row.
Chelsea travel to Spain this weekend for the first leg of their semifinal matchup against dreaded competitor Barcelona. Barcelona’s obvious dominance in the world of European football in general, and the UEFA Women’s Champions League specifically, means that Chelsea take the field at Estadi Johan Cruyff as the undeniable underdog.
While manager Sonia Bompastor does have past form defeating Barcelona (when Lyon pulled off the win in 2022), Barcelona has a long history of success in Champions League that Chelsea cannot come close to matching.
However, fans of the Blues need not abandon all hope. Here are three reasons why Chelsea could pull off a semifinal win:
1. The two-way tie starts in Spain and ends at home in England for Chelsea
Generally, teams benefit from playing the second leg at home. While this hasn’t been a surefire guarantee of success for the Blues, it could produce a bit of a home field advantage. Chelsea fans must show up for the second leg and provide that “twelfth player” energy.
2. The “new manager bounce” doesn’t just affect one team
Barcelona may have felt they knew what to expect from Chelsea under the excellent, but non-Champions-League-winning, Emma Hayes. They may not be sure what to predict from Sonia Bompastor, who has beaten them before as a player and a coach, and who has guided Chelsea through a riotous series of successes marred only by three league draws and one Champions League loss.
Barcelona has a regrettable tendency to be rattled when a creative and determined squad starts scoring against them, which may be the opportunity Chelsea can exploit.
3. New year, new squad
Since the last time these clubs clashed in the UWCL, Chelsea has acquired two Barcelona stalwarts — Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh — and put them to excellent use (while also depriving Barcelona of those key defensive and midfield linchpins). In addition, Chelsea has remarkable squad depth: Guro Reiten appears to have returned to match fitness, Sam Kerr remains a potential threat, and Bompastor has hinted that Naomi Girma may be ready for a return to play.
And that’s in addition to the really ridiculous amount of under-the-hood power that Chelsea boasts, from strikers like Ramirez, Rytting Kaneryd, and Aggie Beever-Jones, through tenacious midfield terrors like Erin Cuthbert, all the way back to the brick-wall protective strength of Millie Bright.
Both top-drawer teams feel an eagerness and a tension when battling one another, as both Erin Cuthbert and Keira Walsh acknowledged in a recent interview. It remains to be seen whether Chelsea will defeat their new rivals in Spain and set themselves up for an easier path to Lisbon.
The match kicks off Sunday, April 20th, a day after Arsenal — the other WSL team remaining in Champions League contention — comes to grips with Lyon in their first semifinal leg.