Chelsea Women might not be as dominant as they once were in the heydays of Emma Hayes under our helm. It doesn’t mean the standards have changed after her exit as her substitute, Sonia Bompastor, went unbeaten in all domestic matches to win a treble in her debut season.
Hayes’ Achilles heel was always the Champions League. But there was little question back then that Chelsea would only be stopped by one of the eventual competition champions. That’s no longer the case.
The Blues did dominate FC Twente
at their turf in the entire first half and if it wasn’t for some heroic saves from goalkeeper Diede Lemey and very bad aim in front of goal, the result today would be at least similar to the 3-1 win last season at De Grolsch Veste where we left halftime two goals in front. Instead we had to work with a goalless draw once we got to the second half kick-off.
Having held the fort in the first half the Dutch champions felt emboldened. They started to get more often in our defensive third and little by little they built the chance that got them the opening goal via Danique van Ginkel — no relation to Marco.
A wholly unexpected event and result which Twente really wanted to hold onto. Thankfully they couldn’t do it as midfielder Lynn Groenewegen gave a foul in the area, and Sandy Baltimore converted it from the spot in our favour.
It wasn’t a situation in which Chelsea have never been under Emma. But back then you really felt she and her players would pull something off and get us the comeback win even against a Barcelona if we were in a good day. Unfortunately you can’t say the same about this team with Sonia at helm.
To be fair to Sonia and her team the Blues didn’t give up until the final whistle. It was still clear they’d be hard pressed finding one of those last gasp scores that we grew so used to pull off not too many years ago to take home the three points.
- Livia Peng to make her full debut today between the posts.
- Really unlucky not to go in front in this first half.
- This can really be a “one-off” situation where things simply didn’t click to get Chelsea the win. But if you can’t break Twente apart in 90 minutes, can you really do it against a Barcelona or even a Wolfsburg?
- Next up: Tottenham at home in the Women’s Super League.
- KTBFFH.
