Chelsea and Barcelona meet again but semi-final comes with key difference | OneFootball

After overturning a 2-0 first-leg defeat against Manchester City to reach the Women’s Champions League semi-finals, it’s no surprise that Chelsea’s players were full of the belief that this could be their year. Even with Barcelona to come next, for the third year in a row in the semi-finals, Sonia Bompastor has raised Chelsea’s confidence to another level. “Bring it on,” said captain Millie Bright.

Barcelona are the reason the Champions League was the only trophy Chelsea did not win under Emma Hayes. A thrashing in the 2021 final was followed by two much closer defeats over two legs in 2023 and 2024, with Barcelona going on to lift the trophy on both occasions. The holders will be favourites to progress again and reach the Lisbon final but Bompastor brings a different edge to the latest meeting in their rivalry.

The French coach won the Champions League as a player and manager with Lyon and defeated Barcelona in the 2022 final. Bompastor had watched bits of Barcelona’s ruthless thrashing of Wolfsburg in the previous quarter-final, before her players produced their best performance of the season to blow City away at Stamford Bridge, but she did not talk down Chelsea’s chances.

“In football everything is possible. I will bring all the confidence we will need [to beat Barcelona] in those two games,” Bompastor said. “But first of all we want to enjoy tonight because it was not easy.”

It was almost as if suffering their first defeat under Bompastor in the first leg in Manchester provoked Chelsea into producing their most complete performance of the season in the return leg. If Chelsea have not always needed to be in top gear given their dominance in the Women’s Super League - where they have won 15 of their 17 games, drawing the other two - finding themselves 2-0 down in the tie required Bompastor’s players to be on it from the start.

“We needed to start the game like that,” said Lauren James. “City are a good team, they have amazing individuals that are tight on the ball, so we couldn’t give them time.” Led by James, but supported by Erin Cuthbert and Wieke Kaptein in midfield and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd on the other wing, Chelsea ran and ran.

The transformation of the England winger into a tireless worker off the ball - which has been noticed by Sarina Wiegman - is an example of how Bompastor has elevated the work left by Hayes. Could this year’s semi-finals offer a further illustration? Under Hayes, Chelsea could frustrate Barcelona with their shape off the ball but there would be points where they became a little too passive. Bompastor has Chelsea playing with intensity.

Bompastor has raised standards and elevated Chelsea’s work off the ball (Getty Images)

Pressing Barcelona, and their skillful, technical midfielders like Aitana Bonmati, requires courage but Chelsea were already getting closer under Hayes. In last year’s semi-final, it took the controversial sending off of Kadeisha Buchanan, in a decision Hayes called the “worst in Women’s Champions League history”, for Barcelona to finally take control of the season leg at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea will be wary of Barcelona’s history in this competition, but their own aura under Bompastor is growing by the week and coming from behind in the manner they did against City strengthens their resolve. Even after the first-leg defeat in Manchester, Bompastor was convinced that Chelsea could turn it around. “We were never in doubt,” Bright said.

Chelsea's relentlessness this season also means that the Women’s Super League may have been all but wrapped up by the time they face Barcelona - the leaders can move to the brink of a sixth successive title with victory over West Ham to maintain an eight-point gap on Sunday, with four fixtures remaining after that. In Chelsea’s previous battles with the Spanish side, the April semi-finals have arrived as the WSL title race was in the balance.

That, and the confidence brought by a Champions League winner in Bompastor, may prove the difference as Chelsea and Barcelona meet again.