Chelsea Women play arguably their biggest match of the season this evening (Thursday) as they look to overturn a two-goal deficit against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge in the Women's Champions League quarter-final second-leg.
The Blues were beaten 2-0 in Manchester with a second-half double from Vivianne Miedema enough for City to hold the advantage going into tonight's decisive leg. The two sides met in the Women's Super League on Sunday afternoon and Chelsea got the better of the Citizens despite going a goal down.
Kerolin handed City the lead on 32 minutes, but a second-half fightback from the Blues saw them come out with all three points. Aggie Beever-Jones levelled the match on 49 minutes, before a stoppage time winner from Erin Cuthbert sparked scenes of jubilation for the visitors.
They will be hoping for similar scenes this evening as they look to progress into the final four of the Champions League - a trophy that still evades the Blues. With all of this being said, here is a preview of tonight's match in football.london's weekly Chelsea Women round-up:
Bompastor's emphatic message
Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor has called on her team to embrace the challenge this evening as they look to come back from a two-goal deficit. After last week saw Bompastor's 28-game unbeaten run as Blues boss come to an end, she will not want a similar feeling this evening.
Bompastor believes there is still plenty of hope for Chelsea in this tie, with the winner likely to face Barcelona, the two-time defending champions, in the semi-final. Speaking on Wednesday, Bompastor said: "I don't want my players to have any regrets. This is what we want to go for.
"The preparation of the game is really important. We have talked about the strategy of the game and it's really important to have everyone on the same page with that. We feel ready, we need to execute the game-plan.
"We have all the qualities to turn things around. Ninety minutes is a lot of time for us. We need a strong start. Everyone in the club wants to win this competition, I still feel like we have the capacity and quality to turn things around. I told my players last week, 'we're still alive', that's important.
"Last week was not decisive, we need to respond. I focus a lot on my team. Playing Man City three times you can know more, it's a really rare situation, but even if I know more I still need time to know [everything] about him [Nick Cushing, City boss]. I don't feel any difference preparing this game. We need to believe and be confident. I just want us to attack the game and have no regrets at the end."
Bright's rallying cry
Chelsea captain Millie Bright has called on her team to show their "winning mentality" to help overcome the two-goal deficit to Manchester City this evening. Despite being 2-0 down going into tonight's second-leg, everyone in the Blues squad seems to be on the same page: they are confident they will progress into the semi-finals.
"As a club we're always aware of the trophies we haven't won, but the most important thing is to look at what we have won," Bright said when asked about never winning the Champions League at Chelsea. "This is our opportunity to bounce back and really show as a team our mentality and the qualities we have.
"It is always the aim to win everything, it's part of who we are, it's part of our ambition. It's part of your goals when you become a Chelsea player. That's your ambition, you ask any individual within our squad and they will give you the same answer.
"That burning desire to win this competition... it's the Champions League. Everyone knows how special the Champions League is. It's an incredible honour to win it as a player and Sonia has done it as both, so it's everyone's dream to do that."
Charles details key component vs Man City
Niamh Charles believes "starting the game fast" will be massively important if Chelsea are to overcome the incredibly difficult challenge of progressing into the Champions League semi-finals. With the home supporters behind them at Stamford Bridge, a quick opening to the game could catch Manchester City off guard this evening and set the Blues up for a memorable night.
"We have to focus on ourselves and what we can do really well," Charles explained. "Obviously we are at home, we have the fans, we have a good record at Stamford Bridge and I think starting the game fast will be really important, getting into it and setting the tempo that we want to.
"Then it's all about trusting what we've worked on and playing the way we want to play and attacking it and going for it, not waiting for the latter stages of the game."