**Chelsea**clinched a deserved 1-1 draw against Barcelona, battling on an even keel across 90 minutes.
The Blues began brightly against their bogey team on the continental stage, scoring the first goal of the game through Ellie Carpenter. But the guests were not rattled and **Ewa Pajor**soon equalised.
There would be no decisive act in the second half as the advances of the Blaugrana ran around time and again, leaving the hosts to wonder what could have been with their many chances on the night.
Story of the Match
Sonia Bompastor rotated four members of the lineup she selected for a 1-1 draw against **Liverpool**on the weekend.
Lucy Bronze was back in the fold, taking the place of Niamh Charles, and Naomi Girma got a spot instead of Millie Bright. Johanna Rytting Kaneryd dropped out for Sandy Baltimore, and Aggie Beeever-Jones joined the attacking unit over Catarina Macario.
**Pere Romeu**brought his team to West London off the back of a 4-0 rout of Real Madrid.
He made only one change to the starting eleven from the derby: **Vicky Lopez**dropped out of the midfield for three time winner of Ballon d’Or, Aitana Bonmati. **Patricia Guijarro**remained absent from action due to a broken bone in her foot, but there was still plenty of talent available in the matchday squad.
The Blues seemed set on flipping the script against an opponent who have so often been their undoing. **Wieke Kaptein**let fly from the beginning to try to test Cata Coll as a signal of intent. There were phases of intricate play in the first ten minutes of the match as **Chelsea**looked to lay a marker.
Suddenly, it seemed as if the guests were getting their rhythm: Caroline Graham Hansen clipped a brilliant pass to release Ewa Pajor, but a poor touch from the Polish forward let Livia Peng smother the danger. A matter of moments later, the Norwegian forward found herself as the recipient of a line splitting through ball, but Girma got a foot in the way to deny a massive goalscoring opportunity.
But the initiative of Bompastor’s side would not go unrewarded. Beever-Jones held onto the ball as the Blues built out from the back and set away Ellie Carpenter, who drove decisively into the final third. Teammates flooded forward in support of the wing-back, but she hammered a shot into the net.
It was the first time in four trips to Stamford Bridge that the Spanish side had fallen behind, but **Barcelona**would not be shaken so easily. Mapi Leon faked to strike, picking the eye of the needle with a pass for Pajor, whose finish would be chalked off due to offside positioning from the forward.
At the third attempt, she got it right. Claudia Pina put a corner kick into the danger zone, and as the hosts failed to mop up the danger, Pajor punished them, firing an effort past Peng into the top corner.
The hosts fought back. Captain Erin Cuthbert showed her class, feeding a cute through ball for Kaptein, who could not lift the ball over the onrushing Coll.
**Alyssa Thompson**thrashed a strike into the side netting before Kaptein came even closer to a second goal. She received a layoff from Thompson, and her shot struck the frame of the target, allowing **Barcelona**to scramble and clear.
There was then a pause in play as an apparent power failure cut the communications for the referee and stopped the live feed for footage of the game. After a seven minute period, the action resumed.
Baltimore blasted a speculative shot over the bar, and the first half ended with the score at one apiece.
**Chelsea**came out for the restart with less aggression in their approach. The expected pattern of action from the outset unfolded: the Blues sat in banks of defensive lines, shuffling to try to stifle their opponents. However, Romeu’s side saw little productivity in the final third from their possession.
Indeed, a big counterattacking opportunity emerged for the Blues in the 63rd minute. Cuthbert carved open a path for the hosts to break forward in transition, finding Carpenter on the charge down the right. She chose to go it alone rather than looking for Thompson, flashing an effort wide of the mark.
Macario then stepped in for Beever-Jones, and the USA international immediately made an impact.
Thompson drew a foul from Laia Aleixandri before the substitution took place, and **Chelsea**earned a free kick just beyond the halfway line. Cuthbert provided the service again, whipping the ball onto the head of the forward, who found the back of the net. However, she was flagged for being offside.
The replays were not conclusive, adding more fuel to the fire over the debate around the place of VAR in the game. But there was no time for the hosts to begrudge their misfortune as 15 minutes remained.
Another massive opening soon came their way. Carpenter flew forward again, going on the inside to link up with Macario. The forward’s layoff was perfect, but Carpenter dragged a shot past the post.
**Barcelona**had continued to have more of the ball, threatening through the work of Pina to break the discipline of the Blues. Yet, their quality was not engineering clear openings and a long range potshot from Alexia Putellas proved their frustration. A point was the least the hosts would have deserved.
And that was what they got. Romeu threw on Kika Nazareth and Sydney Schertenleib to freshen up the attack, but it was not enough to break down the blue wall at the Bridge. Three minutes of injury time elapsed, and **Barcelona**watched their 100% winning record in the Champions League vanish.
**Sandy Baltimore**and Ellie Carpenter stood out on the wings with their aggression and forward thinking attitude while Alyssa Thompson again showed her skill on the biggest of stages. But, the player whose impact was arguably the greatest across the 90 minutes of action was the captain.
**Erin Cuthbert**led by example, doing her best to hold onto structure in the middle of the park against Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati. When the time was right, she was ready to play with bravery, and on another day, she would have got a game winning assist for Macario in the second half.