It has been a massive week for Chelsea Women, one that started in glory but has now been met with despair. Fortunately, though, it could end in more glory.
The [Blues](https://www.football.london/all-about/chelsea-women) have played two of their four consecutive matches against Manchester City in this unprecedented and bizarre turn of events. The first came on Saturday afternoon at Derby County's Pride Park Stadium in the Women's League Cup final.
Chelsea raced to an early lead in Derbyshire through Mayra Ramirez but were pegged back on 64 minutes through Aoba Fujino. However, the Blues were not to be denied their first League Cup triumph since 2021 with City's Yui Hasegawa putting the ball into her own net with just over 10 minutes of normal time remaining in what turned out to be the decisive goal.
Sonia Bompastor won her first piece of silverware as Chelsea head coach but there was little time to celebrate, knowing her side were back in action against the same opposition - but this time in the Women's Champions League - on Wednesday evening. All of the reaction from the European tie below in our weekly Chelsea Women round-up:
### Blues beaten by half-time change
Bompastor suffered her first defeat as Chelsea boss on Wednesday in Manchester. City hold a two-goal advantage going into next week's second-leg at Stamford Bridge.
Vivianne Miedema proved to be the difference for City in the first match of the quarter-final. On at half-time for the hosts, the former Arsenal forward opened the scoring on the hour-mark before doubling her and City's tally on 88 minutes to give Chelsea some serious work to do in a week.
After Miedema opened the scoring, Chelsea thought they had levelled through Ramirez. The Colombian had the ball in the back of the net but was deemed offside in what was a really marginal call from the assistant referee.
The Blues will be looking to bounce back at the weekend, as they take on City once again at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
### Bompastor remains confident
Bompastor may have tasted defeat for the first time as Chelsea head coach, but she remains confident her side can overturn the two-goal deficit next week and progress into the semi-finals.
Speaking after the game, she said: "Tonight was not the decisive game, as I said to my players at the end, we were all disappointed and frustrated about the result, but we have the second-leg at home next week and everything is possible.
"I have been in this situation before when things do not go the way you want in the first-leg but you still have the second-leg to approach the game in a different way to help qualify. So now this is my main focus and we will do everything possible to make it happen."
On the defeat itself, Bompastor said: "It's tough, difficult obviously. I think we have to say that tonight was a difficult night.
"Sometimes it happens in football, so my job is to make sure it's okay for everyone to be disappointed about the performance and the result. But from tomorrow leading in to the next game against City, we have to make sure we analyse it as a team performance and then go with a positive attitude into the next two games."
### Bronze slams Chelsea 'effort'
Lucy Bronze has said her Chelsea side were "miles off it" as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Man City on Wednesday night. However, the Blues defender has insisted the result can be overturned and remains confident ahead of next week's second-leg at Stamford Bridge.
"I don't think we were good enough," Bronze explained. "I don't think we had enough effort in our press. We were sloppy in our passing.
"City were better organised. We were miles off our game. Sonia said that at half-time. It improved a little bit in the second-half, but that is obviously when they got in and got their goals.
"Although we are two goals down, we are completely confident that we can turn this around. It will be the biggest game of the season so far. It's all still to play for. We know we can score goals. We've got goals all over the pitch."