Chelsea will face Barcelona in the semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League for a third successive season after completing an incredible first-half comeback to see off Manchester City on Thursday.
Trailing by two goals after an impressive substitute appearance from Vivianne Miedema last week, Sonia Bompastor’s side fought valiantly on home soil and had halved the deficit within fifteen minutes through Sandy Baltimore.
Nathalie Björn and Mayra Ramírez both found their way onto the scoresheet before the break too, with Chelsea edging ever closer to a trophy-laden campaign in Bompastor’s first season in London.
There was always going to be an unknown element to the last of four back-to-back meetings between Chelsea and Manchester City – and after Arsenal’s historic comeback win over Real Madrid a night earlier, Sonia Bompastor’s side would have been teeming with confidence.
But since Nick Cushing took the reigns in Manchester a little over two weeks ago, the _Cityzens_ have impressed and crucially claimed a 2-0 win in the first leg of this quarter-final tie at the Joie Stadium a week ago.
Their hopes of reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 2017/18 suffered an early scare when, with just 14 minutes on the clock in SW6, Sandy Baltimore arrived to power home the opener.
Chelsea’s high press and incredible intensity left their visitors struggling, and Cushing’s defence was once again exploited in the 38th minute when Nathalie Björn flicked home a header to restore aggregate parity.
That lasted all of five minutes, though, with Mayra Ramírez taking advantage of a gaping hole in the _Cityzens’_ defence to connect with Lauren James’ cutback from the byline and complete the comeback before the break.
(Photo by Harry Murphy – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Thursday’s hosts had a plethora of opportunities to further extend their lead: Ramírez sent efforts wide of the target, Björn was denied her brace by the woodwork and Erin Cuthbert’s celebrations were halted by the crossbar too.
A three-goal defeat at Stamford Bridge rendered Manchester City’s only win in this bout of four consecutive clashes effectively meaningless, as the _Cityzens_ exit the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Chelsea, meanwhile, now prepare for a third successive semi-final against Barcelona – having won one leg in each of the past two seasons, only to lose out on aggregate. The games will be played on 19/20 and 26/27 April.
**CHE:** Hampton; Baltimore, Bright, Björn, Bronze; Cuthbert, Walsh; James, Kaptein, Rytting Kaneryd; Ramírez
**MCI:** Keating; Ouahabi, Aleixandri, Prior, Casparij; Miedema, Hasegawa, Roord, Murphy, Fowler, Kerolin