Blues defender Lucy Bronze believes an impressive second-half performance helped her side to a 2-1 UEFA Champions League win over Real Madrid at the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium.
When the two sides met in the Spanish capital on Tuesday evening, it was a battle for Group B's top spot. And it was Real Madrid who struck first when they took the lead after seven minutes through Caroline Weir.
But, the Blues started with intent in the second half and were determined to get the job done. Half-time substitute [Catarina Macario](/en/teams/profile/catarina-macario) impressed and scored twice from the penalty spot inside a five-minute period to put us 2-1 up just before the hour mark.
Her brace coupled with a much-improved display from the team after the restart saw Bompastor's side secure top spot in Group B, and we will now enter the quarter-final draw in February as one of four seeded teams.
'It was a little bit of a frustrating first half from ourselves and our expectations of how we play,' Bronze said after our win against Las Blancas. 'This game meant a lot to us and it's not how we wanted to start the game.
'But, in the second half, and the way we started... I think we were fantastic. If we can do performances like that, especially how we were for 20 minutes at the start of that second half, then we can beat any team playing like that. It's just about maintaining those high levels throughout the entire 90 minutes.'
'We were a bit tentative at the start and then going 1-0 down early,' Bronze continued. 'We wanted to finish at the top of the group and we want to be winning every game. That's our mentality and that's what gives us confidence.
'We had to give more individually and collectively put the pressure on and we did that at the start of the second half.'
Bronze, a five-time Champions League winner from spells at Lyon and Barcelona, knows what it takes to go far in the European competition. There are no easy games, she says, even if we will have an advantage as a seeded team going into the knockouts.
'It's good to get the seeded spot, but any team in the draw is going to be difficult,' Bompastor said. 'The most important thing was just to win and get back to that mentality.
'We wanted to finish top of the group because it sends a message. It gives us confidence, especially going into the winter break. We can be happy that we finished this half of the season with a win. We now have to rest up and get ready to start the second half of the season in January.'
**_You can register your interest for our Champions League quarter-final match at Stamford Bridge_** [**_here_**](https://chelseafc.formstack.com/forms/crm_cfcw_championsleague_ryi_2425)**_! We will find out our opponents on 7 February, with the two-legged fixture set to be played in March._**