If it wasn’t for some baffling calls from a team of referees clearly out of their depth, Chelsea Women would be heading into this second leg confrontation with more of a fighting chance to beat the defending UEFA Women’s Champions League champions for a semi-final spot. No crying over spilled milk, however.
We’re still two goals down in this two-legged tie. It’s not an impossible deficit to overcome if the women in Blue find the same spirit that practically brought them to equalising Arsenal’s efforts
at the Emirates. Only this time with home advantage.
Date / Time: Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, 20.00 BST; 3pm EDT
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Frida Nielsen (on pitch); Katrin Rafalski (VAR)
Forecast: Few clouds and some wind
On TV: BBC Two (UK); CBS Sports Network, ESPN Deportes (USA); elsewhere
Streaming: BBC iPlayer, Disney+ (UK); ESPN+, fuboTV, Paramount+ (USA)
Chelsea team news: Even with the Blues not having the best season of their history, you rarely see this team getting embroiled in high-scoring thrillers. We were witnesses to such a rare happenstance last weekend as Sjoeke Nüsken gave us the winning goal in a 4-3 win over Aston Villa where the first six goals were scored all in the first half.
For this upcoming match at the Bridge we’ll have the return of attacker Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, who wasn’t in the squad for weekend’s match. However defender Millie Bright didn’t recover in time to face Arsenal. And so didn’t forward Aggie Beever-Jones, who left the pitch with a knock almost two weeks ago in our 1-1 draw to London City in the Women’s Super League.
Arsenal team news: With two games in hand and 37 points in the Women’s Super League, the Gunners are the only team in the competition with a fighting chance versus leaders Manchester City. They got their six straight win in the league this weekend with a resounding 5-2 victory over Tottenham at the Emirates, where Alessia Russo scored a hat-trick.
Head coach Renée Slegers has very few injuries and absences to worry over. The main one remains defender Leah Williamson, whose injury picked up in mid-March is not major but requires some attention.
Previously: Let’s train!
