Plenty of action taking place in the transfer window realm. So much so that the pitch is sometimes left forgotten.
Not the case for Chelsea Women, however. On the back of a tale of two halves against Real Sociedad at Plough Lane last week, the Blues take on Real Sociedad for a second time to hopefully finish the job in these UEFA Women’s Champions League qualifiers.
Date / Time: Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026, 18.00 BST; 1:00pm EDT Venue: Estadio Izan, San Sebastián, Spain Referee: Ivana Martinčić
(CRO) Forecast: Sunny and warm
On TV: none (UK); none (USA); elsewhere
Streaming: Free at Chelsea FC and the club’s official app
Real Sociedad team news: Given how the visitors started the match at Plough Lane only a few could imagine – or hope – the final scoreline would be so lopsided in Chelsea’s favour. Recent events certainly don’t help: they lost manager Arturo Ruiz to Brighton only five days ago and in the day after they lost 2-0 to Logroño in their Liga F season debut, although with a heavily rotated squad.
The Txuri-urdin will be without centre-back María Molina, left-back Aiara Agirrezabala and forward Sonya Keefe through injury. Goalkeeper Alazne Estensoro is unavailable due to Spain U20 duty.
Chelsea team news: After 60 minutes of fierce nail-biting the Blues decided it was time for something different. A three-goal advantage in the first leg built thanks to our attacking players with two goals from new signing, Melvine Malard.
In the injury department the only new addition is defender Natalie Björn. Erin Cuthbert, Mayra Ramírez and Manaka Matsukubo remain out of contention.
Previously: Last week’s (second half) thrashing at our new ground.
