Chelsea 3-0 (3-2 agg.) Manchester City, Women's Champions League: Post-match reaction

03/27/2025 05:56 PM

A comeback for the ages!

This series of clashes between Chelsea Women and Manchester City has taken a toll on the bodies of the two teams. Both sides were already suffering from fitness crises all over the squad, and the streak of four highly demanding games with one another in a span of less than two weeks only took things further.

Manchester City have suffered the most in this regard. They lost their main player, Bunny Shaw, to injury right at the start of the run when Chelsea beat them 1-0 to the Women's League Cup trophy. That they have managed to turn around and give the Blues their first defeat in the entire season in spite of her absence was a massive feat.

However this Chelsea side, who have often been "accused" of building a winning streak on luck on several occasions had to show City and the rest of the footballing world this is not the case. They began this in the second half of a 2-1 Women's Super League win over City and they would continue doing so tonight at Stamford Bridge, first via Sandy Baltimore.

Baltimore wouldn't be done with a goal of her own. She would also assist our second goal with a great corner kick where Nathalie Björn rose to the occasion with a floating header.

Their act was followed by Lauren James and Mayra Ramírez. The former assisting the latter for a third goal to put us in the aggregate score lead in the first half of tonight's game.

Chelsea just couldn't take their foot off the gas pedal, and they even got close to scoring a fourth goal before the end of the half. It was the kind of pressure and urgency we sorely lacked since pretty much our return from the winter break in January.

It would be very difficult to keep up this level of play in the second half, and Chelsea allowed themselves to take it down a notch. They were helped by a City team lacking both fitness and spirit, who struggled to find pathways towards our defensive third.

A fourth goal would have given us more peace of mind. But Khiara Keating turned up for the task in the second half, and denied us that kind of relief.

Nevertheless, we beat them. Not just a simple win, but a comeback victory over 180 minutes of play.

Carefree!

• Keira Walsh and Erin Cuthbert in midfield, with Wieke Kaptein playing the no.10 role.
• Sandy Baltimore is amazing.
• Vivianne Miedema continues to be very frustrating to play against. Without her City wouldn't have done a thing in the first half.
• On to the semi final against Barcelona!
• Next up: West Ham at Kingsmeadow in the Women's Super League.
• KTBFFH