Sometimes a point feels like three dropped. That was the case on Thursday night for Chelsea Women. In front of its home fans at Stamford Bridge, Emma Hayes' Blues looked flat against a team that currently holds one of the best defenses in the UEFA Women's Champions League.
Mak Lind and BK Hacken walked into west London with one thing on their mind, secure a point. There was really no plan going forward whatsoever. It was all about shutting it down in the back and holding the four-time defending English champions scoreless. Lind's crew did just that. Zecira Musovic watched mostly from afar as her fellow teammates tried to configure a way to unlock the away side's backline.
Thursday was the first time across all competitions that the west Londoners were held scoreless for 90 minutes since the first leg of the Champions League semifinals last year against Barcelona. It was almost a mirror image of the 0-0 contest between Juventus and the west London side in December 2021 at Kingsmeadow. The same game that saw Sam Kerr absolutely lay out a pitch invader. The Italian outfit had almost no possession while Hayes' crew owned most of it. Still, even with over 20 shots, five of them forced the goalkeeper into action.
The Chels tried to shake up the lineup from the Arsenal disaster, making five changes including two attack-minded ones. Guro Reiten made her return to the starting XI while Fran Kirby, who did experience an injury scare early on slotted in as the No. 10. All of it just didn't quite click. There were moments of quality, but none where we saw pieces of brilliance strung together consecutively. Here's our takeaways from the 90 minutes as the Swedish outfit still leads the Blues by two points atop the Group D table.
BK Häcken is the unexpected leader of Group D midway through the group stage, but can they keep it up? 🤔#UWCLonDAZN pic.twitter.com/OvHVmTKExE
— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) December 14, 2023