Sonia Bompastor is excited for a special UEFA Women’s Champions League night as Chelsea take to the pitch on the biggest stage, but knows the Blues will need to be prepared for a tough game against Arsenal.
Our 2025/26 European campaign continues with an all-London clash in the quarter-finals on Tuesday evening, with the first leg being played across the capital at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners are the reigning continental champions, having beaten Barcelona in last year’s final. That combination of top-level opposition and local rivalry in the biggest competition in European football makes for a mouthwatering tie.
‘I'm really excited to go and be on the touchline, supporting my players to play a Champions League quarter-final, no matter who we are facing,’ said Bompastor. ‘Of course, it's a lot of emotions, but really positive emotions.
‘The Champions League games are really special for a club, that's the biggest competition you can play, as a player and as a manager.
‘I think Arsenal are a strong team and it will be a tough game, but we also know that in some moments of the games, we could hurt them. So we are trying to be as consistent as we can from minute one of the game.
‘We know we have the quality to hurt them. We also want to make sure we control the game as much as we can.’
It arrives during a busy spell for the Blues. After lifting our first silverware of the season by beating Manchester United in the Women’s League Cup final, we are also in the thick of the fight for European qualification at the top of the Women’s Super League table and have a Women's FA Cup quarter-final against another of our London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, to come shortly after the second leg of this Champions League tie.
Bompastor and her players are just focused on the task at hand, though, taking each fresh challenge as it comes while competing across several fronts.
‘We know this block is really important for us, it's the business end of the season,’ she continued.
‘We just want to take it game by game and my main job right now is to focus on the game plans, the players available and making sure I prepare them in the best way possible for us to perform in every game.
‘The game tomorrow will be different from the ones we played before. It's a different competition from the competition we played at the weekend.
‘We are really well prepared for every game. The players already know the game plan. It's a Champions League game, an evening game, against a big opponent. So everything is on the table to make sure we perform and we enjoy the game.
‘We will always have the mentality to go on the pitch and fight as hard as we can, make things difficult for the opponent, and we will show as much desire as we can to win the game.’
Hopefully that mentality can produce a victory at the Emirates Stadium tonight, to bring a lead back to west London ahead of the second leg of our Champions League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge on 1 April.