Chelsea Women 4-0 Crystal Palace Women
While the Blues just need four points from nine to clinch their sixth successive Women's Super League title on the trot following their 4-0 win over Crystal Palace at Kingsmeadow, the immediate focus is on the Champions League.
Stamford Bridge will be buzzing on Sunday (27 April) as Chelsea take on Barcelona in the second leg of the semi-final, with a mountain to climb after losing 4-1 in the Johan Cruyff stadium in Spain.
Discounted H&F residents-only tickets are still available to buy here as manager Sonia Bompastor calls on the crowd to be the 12th player to achieve what would be a remarkable comeback.
But, I asked Sonia after Wednesday night's domestic victory, do her players really have the confidence and belief to pull it off?
"If they don't, they can stay at home," was her blunt message. "We have to have the right mentality on Sunday, which maybe was something we didn't see in the first leg.
"We need to believe it's possible. If with some of the players I don't feel that belief in them, they will stay home! I'll be quick to tell them not to show up if they don't think it's possible. But I'm sure everyone will come!"
In the end, although the scoreline looked convincing, Chelsea made oddly heavy work of their 4-0 win against lowly Palace, despite the visitors being reduced to 10 players in the 48th minute after captain Allyson Swaby was red-carded for bringing down Guro Reiten as she ran forward on goal.
Reiten had opened the scoring with a penalty after 24 minutes, while Caterina Macario slammed home a second two minutes later.
Macario took the second penalty after Reiten's felling to make it 3-0, and Mia Fishel got the last touch on 64 minutes to add the fourth.
But after multiple substitutions and despite that extra player advantage, Chelsea laboured to add more to their goal difference, which could still be a factor in the final league reckoning.
Bompastor even apologised for the boring last half-hour of the game. The game limped to a close, with goalie Hannah Hampton only having one glimpse of the action, in the 90th minute, when sub Ria Oling's tame 'shot' rolled gently towards her to pick up.
To be fair, Bompastor had rotated her starting XI following the weekend's Spanish omelette which had seen fans' hopes, rather than eggs, broken.
She made seven changes in midweek, then brought off key players including Aggie Beever-Jones, Sandy Baltimore, Reiten and Naomi Girma, to guard against injuries.
Niamh Charles and Sjoeke Nusken proved the most in-form and effective players on Wednesday night, and will surely play some part in Sunday's showdown.
As if to remind Chelsea and their fans of the task ahead, Palace's small but vocal travelling faithful repeatedly barracked with the taunt of "Barcelona, Barcelona" from the Kingston Road end of Kingsmeadow.
If the Blues pull it off, it will be the most astonishing result in the club's 33-year history.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
