Chelsea Women had a frustrating ordeal ahead as they commenced their UEFA Women’s Champions League campaign. They held FC Twente all the way to a 1-1 draw at the De Grolsch Veste Stadium on Wednesday night. After seeing her side go down 2-0, Sandy Baltimore scored a late equalizer with a penalty kick. Yet the outcome still had Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor wanting more from her talented team.
Twente opened the scoring just nine minutes into the match with a beautiful curling effort from Danique van Ginkel. It was in the 35th minute that she really let loose, ripping a rising shot thick with arc that bent away from Chelsea’s Mille Bright. It bent perfectly into the upper 90 of the net, giving goalkeeper Livia Peng no opportunity to save it. This moment of magic not only gave Twente the lead, but changed the flow of the match in their favor.
Chelsea, seeking to claim their maiden Champions League crown, came close on several occasions to equalizing. The visitors found it tough to make their chances count as they came up against a dogged Twente back line. Here’s a look at how hard both teams battled to regain possession the entire half.
Defensive Challenges for Chelsea
Bompastor rotated heavily, making seven changes to her lineup from the previous match against Manchester United. She wanted to bring new blood, new energy, into the group. Even with these modifications, Chelsea’s back line was under serious duress for most of the match against Twente.
Twente’s no. 1 goalie Diede Lemey went beyond extraordinary with several fabulous saves. She pointedly saved an attempted volley from Sjoeke Nusken, and quickly thwarted a close shot by Guro Reiten. Lemey’s performance played a crucial role in maintaining Twente’s lead.
Chelsea’s Alyssa Thompson had a goal disallowed for offside after pounding a Nusken feed past Lemey. The longer frustration built for Chelsea became the more essential it was for them to not only attack with purpose, but end those attacks with a goal.
Late Drama and Equalizer
As the clock started to wind down, Chelsea’s efforts were finally rewarded. They received a second-half lifeline awarded by VAR when Sophie Reiten was felled in the area with 20 minutes remaining. Baltimore finished the penalty kick with great certainty. He calmly tucked it away into the bottom corner to make it 1-1.
For Bompastor, this moment of relief was bittersweet as she knew that her team would have to do better. After the game, she spoke candidly about being disappointed by the outcome.
“It’s not a good result at all. We wanted to start the campaign with three points.” – Sonia Bompastor
While the result was a disappointing draw, Bompastor was able to be encouraged by her team’s performance on the day. She mentioned that even though she was happy with their work defensively, they had to stop playing with a lack of urgency on the ball.
“Out of possession I am quite happy – even if we conceded a goal. In possession, when you play this goal you need to show more desire.” – Sonia Bompastor
Those stats were a bit harsh on Chelsea, who had 18 crosses and six successful cross duels. Bompastor made it very clear that this kind of inefficiency is intolerable at this level of competition.
“We created a lot of opportunities and couldn’t score more than one. We had multiple situations in the box… This is not enough when you play a Champions League game.” – Sonia Bompastor
Looking Ahead
Chelsea will be looking to bounce back from that disappointing draw. Bompastor implored her players to take the lesson and come together.
“I told my players after the game a bad result is tough right now but we need to stay together and take some learnings from that. That’s the only thing we can do, stay together and find solutions.” – Sonia Bompastor
The Chelsea squad aims to build on their performance as they prepare for their upcoming matches in this prestigious tournament. The key is packaging that offensive explosiveness into something productive while keeping their usually stingy defense intact.
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