Chelsea are already through to the knockout rounds of the UEFA Women’s Champions League with two group games remaining, so all that’s on the line today is pride, placement, and of course our perfect record so far under Sonia Bompastor. The Blues made it 13-from-13 over the weekend by beating Brighton, 4-2, and the new manager made it pretty clear that she intends to keep winning each and every game.
“We just want to keep going and keep winning. It’s part of our mentality. It’s part of the DNA of the club. We never take anything for granted. Every game is really important. We want to keep our good dynamic, our good results and the main goal in this group is for us to stay in first place at the top of the table. We still have two games left and we want to win both.’
“[Our] main goal is to finish at the top of the table — we haven’t achieved that yet — so we are really focused and we want to win the game tomorrow. It’s that simple.”
-Sonia Bompastor; source: Chelsea FC
Twente meanwhile are already eliminated, having won just one of their four games so far. So all that’s on the line for them is pride.
Date / Time: Wednesday, December 11, 20.00 GMT; 3pm EST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Riem Hussein
Forecast: Light breeze, cold
On TV: DAZN (UK); none (USA); elsewhere
Streaming: DAZN (UK); DAZN (USA); YouTube (int’l)
Chelsea v Brighton & Hove Albion - Barclays Women’s Super League Photo by Alex Davidson - The FA/The FA via Getty Images
Chelsea team news: Bompastor will be looking to rotate the squad and try to keep everyone fresh and fit, and that might involve more minutes for Academy youngster Lola Brown, and a first start of the season for Niamh Charles now that she’s back from shoulder injury. And she’s back just in time given that Sandy Baltimore is set to miss another game with an unspecified knee problem. Lauren James, Sam Kerr, and Mia Fishel join Baltimore on the sidelines.
Twente team news: I couldn’t find any specific team news for the visitors, but their head coach, Joran Pot, is looking for the team to have some fun and make a good showing of themselves in the process.
Previously: Chelsea won the reverse fixture 3-1 earlier this season, with Aggie Beever-Jones, Maika Hamano, and Guro Reiten scoring. Twente’s goal was scored by Nikée van Dijk, who leads the team in scoring.