Chelsea have suffered their biggest defeat of the Sonia Bompastor era, falling to a 4-1 loss against Barcelona in the first leg of their UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final on Sunday evening.
Ewa Pajor’s low finish handed the Blaugrana a slender lead at the break, but a brace from substitute Clàudia Pina and a header from Irene Paredes solidified their advantage – despite Sandy Baltimore’s tidy finish that momentarily gave Chelsea hope.
The Blues have a mountain to climb at Stamford Bridge next weekend, when they host the second leg at 14:00 BST [15:00 CEST] on Sunday 27 April.
As it happened
Just ten minutes had passed at the Estadi Johan Cruyff before Chelsea looked to become the latest victims of a controversial VAR involvement, with Nathalie Björn adjudged to have handled the ball inside the penalty area in the aftermath of a Barça corner. Alexia Putellas’ effort from the spot was saved expertly by Hannah Hampton.
Pere Romeu’s Barcelona looked to be the dominant side in front of their home fans and twice threatened to take the lead inside the opening half-hour, with Caroline Graham Hansen’s cross hacked away by Millie Bright before Aitana Bonmatí forced a fine save from Hampton.
Their pressure eventually told with 35 minutes on the clock, when Graham Hansen’s ball fed through for Ewa Pajor was slotted low past the Chelsea shotstopper, who had been struggling to deal with the setting sun over the stadium.
There were concerns for Erin Cuthbert in the second half after the Scottish midfielder tumbled to the ground and looked to be suffering from a knee injury – but while the 26-year-old turned down the aid of a stretcher and was able to continue, Chelsea’s evening in Catalunya soon took a turn for the worse.
Heading back to Stamford Bridge with a one-goal deficit to chase wouldn’t have been too bad, but trailing the reigning European champions by two goals is a situation that no side would ever want to find themselves in. Just minutes after arriving off the bench, however, Clàudia Pina turned home from an Ona Batlle cross inside the six-yard box to double the Blaugrana‘s lead.
A frenetic final fifteen minutes in Barcelona saw Sandy Baltimore give Sonia Bompastor’s side a fighting chance, with Catarina Macario’s low ball fired past Cata Coll by the defender after Guro Reiten allowed the ball to pass her by.
But Barça fought back, restoring their two-goal cushion through a powerful header from Irene Paredes before further stunning Chelsea by extending their advantage to 4-1 inside the final minute of regulation time. A well-worked backheel inside the box from Alexia Putellas found Pina, with the forward’s deflected strike sailing past Hampton to give the Blaugrana a seemingly insurmountable advantage ahead of next weekend’s second leg.
The lineups
BAR: Coll; Brugts, León, Paredes, Batlle; Alexia, Patri, Aitana; Paralluelo, Pajor, Graham Hansen
CHE: Hampton; Baltimore, Bright, Björn, Bronze; Cuthbert, Walsh; Beever-Jones, Kaptein, Rytting Kaneryd; Ramírez