Given that Barcelona have won two of the last three Women’s Champions League final, including a 4-0 victory over Chelsea in 2021, and can boast eight World Cup-winners plus a runner-up in England’s Keira Walsh in their squad, Emma Hayes is not being overly cautious when she says that her side’s 1-0 lead from the first leg means very little for tonight’s deciding return.
Having said that, becoming the first side to beat Barcelona away for five years and the first even to keep a clean sheet against them for two years was no mean feat. Hayes’ defensive strategy demonstrated her courage and her players’ discipline, giving them genuine hope of winning their first European trophy and break the English drought in the tournament that has lasted 17 years since Arsenal’s sole success in 2007. Chelsea have been defeated only once in their past 22 matches at home but the WSL champions are still without Maren Mjelde, Nathalie Bjorn, Aniek Nouwen, Sam Kerr and Mia Fishel.
Millie Bright, however, is available and sat on the bench last week as an unused sub but has yet to make her comeback. Barcelona, by contrast, have only one major absentee, Mapi Leon, who is still recovering from knee surgery.
This match will be Hayes’ last at Stamford Bridge before she moves to take charge of the USWNT as her remaining home games in the WSL will be held, as usual, at Kingsmeadow. It’s the trophy she has long coveted as well as managing her team in front of a packed Bridge and she is delighted that the ground has sold out after making her plea for a rousing send-off last week.
“Maybe it’s taken us a little bit too long to get to a sell-out, but there’s a process and it’s taken us some learnings,” Hayes said. “On the pitch, you have to be there enough for it to feel like your home. It might on some level have become more of our home this year than Kingsmeadow, especially in the Champions League.
“Getting that feeling right, those rituals right, those habits right, that takes a little time. So going out there in a sold-out stadium is a culmination of years of work, a collaborative collection of people who have put bums on seats and a team that has grown to enjoy and experience Stamford Bridge as their home.”