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The 2023 and 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, Aitana Bonmatí, says Barcelona have a “good rivalry, no bad things” had high praise for Chelsea ahead of the tie.
It’s a big rivalry between us, because over the last four or five years we [have been] playing a lot of games, but it’s a good rivalry, no bad things.
In these games [against Chelsea] I always say that we can enjoy the football because we have in front of us a good opponent that makes us be better and better and better. This is the moment of the season we all enjoy – big games. It’s these games that make us great and that show us the level where we want to get to.
Chelsea may have never been able to get past Barcelona in this competition before but Sonia Bompastor has. Her Lyon side beat Barcelona in the 2022 Champions League final 3-1. Here is Tom Garry on Chelsea’s evolution under their new head coach:
Since Bompastor’s arrival, when few imagined anybody could match the dominance Hayes oversaw, Chelsea have lost only once, and some might say even that does not count, given it was in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City which they fought back to win on aggregate.
The trophy the club want above all else, though, is the continent’s top prize. Standing between them and what would be only a second appearance in the final by a British club since 2007 are an in-form Barcelona, who have scored 11 goals in their past two matches and were 10-2 aggregate winners over Wolfsburg in the quarter-finals.
Team news
Barcelona (4-3-3): Coll; Battle, Paredes, León, Brugts; Bonmatí, Guijarro, Putellas; Graham Hansen, Pajor, Paralluelo
Subs: Font, Roebuck, Fernàndez, Torrejón, Pina, Rolfö, López, Engen, Caño, Schertenleib
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Hampton; Bronze, Björn, Bright, Baltimore; Walsh, Cuthbert; Rytting Kaneryd, Kaptein, Beever-Jones; Ramírez
Subs: Spencer, Cox, Nüsken, Macario, Reiten, Lawrence, Girma, Charles, Hamano, Mpomé, Jean-François, Brown
Referee: Katalin Kulcsar (Hungary)
Preamble
Chelsea have been flying in this season in Sonia Bompastor’s debut season at the helm. They have already won the League Cup and are in the FA Cup final. One hand is on the WSL title – their possible sixth in a row – and they are in the Champions League semi-finals. A historic quadruple is on the table.
Enter Barcelona. The Catalan club are the team to beat in Europe, having won the Champions League in three of the previous four seasons. Chelsea, led by Emma Hayes up until this season, have been knocked out of this competition by Barcelona in three of the last four seasons. The Blues have never beat Barcelona in the knockout stages of Europe’s elite club competition. Will this finally be their time?
Join me for the first leg of this Champions League semi-final at the Estadi Johan Cruyff with kick-off at 5pm BST/6pm CEST. And, as always, if you have any thoughts, predictions, questions, complaints or musings you want to share, then feel free to send me an email.
