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Chelsea suffered a chastening defeat as the holders Barcelona cruised through to their fifth consecutive Women’s Champions League final with an 8-2 aggregate victory that demonstrated a sizeable gulf in quality between the two teams.
The result emphatically ended Chelsea’s hopes of lifting a quadruple of major trophies this season, at the start of week when they could be crowned Women’s Super League champions, and kept this peerless Barcelona team on course to lift their third straight European title.
Knowing they needed to win the second leg by at least three goals to have any hope of progressing to the final on 24 May, after their 4-1 loss in the first leg in Catalonia, Chelsea were hoping to score early to apply some pressure and offer their fans a chance to dream of a historic comeback, but instead they found themselves trailing 3-0 by half-time at a stunned Stamford Bridge.
Firstly, the Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí – who was orchestrating so much of the visitors’ stylish passing – raced clear down Chelsea’s left and had too much pace for Niamh Charles, running into the box unhindered before lashing a lethal finish into the roof of the net at Hannah Hampton’s near post.
That goal came shortly after Chelsea had gone close twice in the space of a minute, when firstly Sandy Baltimore scuffed a chance to shoot inside the box and then Sjoeke Nüsken’s close-range strike was saved by Cata Coll, but Bonmatí taught the English league leaders a lesson in ruthlessness.
If conceding that goal had deflated the home side, 18 minutes later they were looking forlorn, as Pere Romeu’s team turned on the style and comprehensively killed off the contest. Ewa Pajor’s dart towards the six-yard box to slot home rounded off one of the best-worked team moves you will see in this competition this season, before Clàudia Pina provided one of the highest-calibre individual strikes of the campaign when she curled a mesmerising strike into the far corner.
By the second half, Chelsea were merely playing for pride, and went close when the substitute Catarina Macario rolled a low strike narrowly wide, while at the other end, an outstanding block from Charles prevented Vicky López from adding a fourth goal, after Hampton had done well to save the initial shot from Salma Paralluelo. The hosts went close with an 87th-minute chance for Lucy Bronze, whose far-post header was palmed away.
Paralluelo added salt to Chelsea’s wounds in the closing stages when she capitalised on a poor mistake from Charles to score a fourth, before Chelsea secured the smallest of consolations through Wieke Kaptein’s good finish, which brought the home crowd to their feet. Maika Hamano also went close in stoppage time but nobody inside the ground had genuinely believed the comeback was on after the 25th minute.
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It was the third season in a row in which Chelsea had been eliminated at the semi-final stage by Barcelona but this was the most humbling scoreline.
It was only the third time that Sonia Bompastor had tasted defeat as Chelsea manager and this one will hurt the most. Trying to win the Champions League – a competition she has won as a player and a manager, with Lyon – was the primary reason she was hired by Chelsea to succeed Emma Hayes last summer. Her team will surely have other chances, but this result served as a harsh illustration of just how far ahead Barcelona are.
