Manchester City vs. Chelsea, Women's Champions League: Preview, team news, how to watch
03/18/2025 01:10 PM
Back to back
One down, three to go.
Next up in this marathon of four straight season-defining matches against Manchester City is the first leg of our Women's Champions League quarterfinal. This one will take place on their home turf, a small arena much like Kingsmeadow where their fans will make their voices heard.
Chelsea will be looking to silence them once again, just like over the weekend in the League Cup final.
Date / Time: Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 20.00 GMT; 4pm EDT
Venue: Academy Stadium, Manchester, England
Referee: Désirée Grundbacher (SUI)
Forecast: Clear sky and light winds
On TV: TNT Sports 1 (UK); none (USA); elsewhere
Streaming: discovery+ (UK); none (USA)
Manchester City team news: Interim manager Nick Cushing lost his first game in charge, though in fairness, his team were slightly above Chelsea in terms of performance in the League Cup final. But winning is what matters and Chelsea have made it a wonderful habit of doing so regardless of our performance levels.
There may be further bad news for City with striker Bunny Shaw questionable after leaving the last game with a hamstring injury. Aoba Fujino, recently back from an injury of her own, scored their goal in the final and will be a threat once again.
Chelsea team news: After losing three League Cup finals in a row (!), we finally put an end to that curse — despite the terrible pitch at Derby's Pride Park Stadium.
Celebrations from players and manager alike were slightly muted: we're fighting for three other, bigger trophies as well, including most notably this Champions League dream.
Sonia Bompastor may want to rotate the squad a little bit, though our injury situation, which remains unchanged from the weekend, may not allow for that. And Mia Fishel, back on the bench lately but not yet back in action after a long injury layoff, hasn't been registered in the competition and also won't be available.
Previously: On Saturday, it was an early goal from Mayra Ramírez that gave Chelsea the lead. City equalized in the second half, but then scored an own goal as well to win the trophy for us.
