Chelsea Women came into this Women’s Champions League matchup with Manchester City Women fresh off their victory in the Subway League Cup Final. As we know that trophy came at the expense of City so the ladies in Sky Blue had plenty of motivation as they welcomed Chelsea to the Joie Stadium in Manchester.
This is also the second of four consecutive meetings between the clubs and the bad blood is already at a low simmer with two more matches to go. City came in to the match with some big names missing like Bunny Shaw but that League Cup defeat combined with an underdog mentality helped fuel their fire.
Chelsea were unable to take advantage of a injury-hit City as the Blues were largely on the back foot from the opening whistle. They allowed wave after wave of City attack and though no one truly test Hannah Hampton in Chelsea’s goal, she still had plenty of work to do for much of the match.
After a goalless first half with both teams seeing big chances go begging, changes were made and the super sub for City proved to be the difference. Vivianne Miedema was the star of the show as she increased the threat on Chelsea’s goal and finally broke through in the 60th minute with a quick reaction from a Hampton save.
Mayra Ramirez was lively all night and on 70 minutes she saw a goal waved off for offside and she was subbed off shortly after. With Chelsea chasing an equalizer, perhaps unwisely, the Blues hit the cross bar but saw their defense get punished with just a minute to go in regular time. It was Miedema once again as she doubled Chelsea’s advantage in 89th minute to put even more pressure on the Blues going into next week.
Some are painting the end of the long unbeaten streak as a positive as it shakes some of the pressure off the Chelsea Women but perhaps they would have liked to see it happen in a less important match. The Blues now have a few days to recover before they face City once again on the weekend in WSL play and the return leg on Thursday, March 27th.
They will have plenty of work to do in overturning a 2-0 deficit but an early goal could see the pressure shift all on to the Citizens instead. This is a crucial period for Chelsea Women’s quadruple chase and they have a little over a week to answer the call.