Chelsea Women 3-2 Real Madrid Femenino
Chelsea Women go into this weekend's pivotal clash with Arsenal at the Emirates on the back of a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Real Madrid Femenino at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night.
Sonia Bompastor's team held firm, despite a nervy last six minutes after Alberto Toril's team – only in existence four years – reduced the deficit to a single goal when Linda Caicedo poked a loose ball home from close range.
Madrid, whose team included former Kingsmeadow regular Mellie Leupolz and ex-City marauder Caroline Weir, were on the back foot from the start as Chelsea flew out of the blocks and scored inside two minutes.
Guro Reiten took a short corner at the Shed end. It was intercepted by the Spanish visitors, who began galloping upfield, but player of the match Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, who dominated the right flank, galloped faster, won the ball back, looped round and provided a pinpoint cross for Sjoeke Nusken to head home via a glance off a defender.
When it became 2-0 after 27 minutes, with Reiten converting the softest of penalties after Nusken fell forwards having been challenged in the area, it looked all over.
Croatian ref Ivana Martincic's generosity in awarding the spot kick left Toril and his coaching staff hopping mad on the touchline, but as monsoon rain fell on the soaked pitch Madrid pulled a goal back via Alba Redondo.
After the break, Mayra Ramirez nodded a Lauren James cross in a spectacular arc over the flailing arms of Madrid keeper Misa, and the two-goal cushion was restored.
Blues keeper Zecira Musovic was unable to keep out Caicedo's late goal for the Spaniards in a melee of shooting and defending in the Chelsea area, but the score remained 3-2, and Toril – for all he may have thought as he stood in his designer raincoat in the technical area – was supremely gracious in defeat.
"We were always in the game, and we almost could have made it 3-3," he said, adding: "Sonia is a fantastic coach, and it's always a great thing for us to come to this fantastic stadium."
Dynamic winger
Special mention to busy Blues winger Sandy Baltimore, an instant fans' favourite who is, says Bompastor, "really talented and dynamic with a good first touch and who works hard for the team defensively as well". She shone.
There were also late debuts from the subs' bench for new Chelsea signings Oriana Jean-Francois and Maelys Mpome.
Just a shame that the club (with owner Todd Boehly watching from a VIP box) didn't put more than a single tier's worth of tickets up for sale as all 5,000 sold out in a day. The club's defence was that they didn't know who their opponents would be until a week before the fixture... yet you couldn't imagine this weekend's opponents Arsenal declining to accommodate 30,000 extra fans in a big venue.
Musovic was in goal for Hannah Hampton, who was taken ill moments before kick-off, delaying the start by five minutes and necessitating two and a half renditions of the walk-out Liquidator song until the first face peeped out of the tunnel.
This was an important win for Bompastor, who said she was pleased with her players' performances, but agreed she needed to work on game management, to try to head off nervy endings in future. She stressed that it didn't mean slowing the game down to walking pace, just working on closer and tighter control and possession, and more considered passing in the final moments.
"This stadium has so much history, and I want to be part of that history," she said. Filling this historic stadium with fans would go a long way to achieving that, with a Chelsea insider admitting this prestige tie against Real Madrid could have been handled better, and insisting that the arrangements for upcoming games (including clashes with Man City and Celtic at Stamford Bridge in November) were being closely reviewed and potentially revised.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
