Chelsea's giant task as Barca inflict pain again

Chelsea are used to winning in England - but when it comes to facing Barcelona in Europe, they keep hitting trouble.

When the Blues were drawn against them in the semi-finals of the Women's Champions League for the third year in a row, their hearts must have sunk.

The defending champions have caused plenty of heartache for Chelsea, knocking them out of the competition in each of the past two seasons and beating them 4-0 in their debut final back in 2021.

But with new manager Sonia Bompastor in charge - someone who has won the competition with former club Lyon - and fresh players in the squad, Chelsea travelled to Spain on Sunday for this season's first leg, optimistic that things could be different.

Instead, Barcelona were ruthless, defeating them 4-1 at the Estadi Johan Cruyff.

It leaves them with a huge challenge in the second leg at Stamford Bridge next Sunday (14:00 BST).

"We came into this game thinking about it being a good opportunity to perform and to show our best," said Bompastor.

"I think the version we showed was not good enough for us to hope to have a better result. We must learn from that.

"We want to move forward and turn things around next week. It will be difficult but in football you have to believe."

Chelsea, on the hunt for a quadruple this season, now need to pick themselves up quickly.

They were still in the game at 2-1 down when wing-back Sandy Baltimore had drilled the ball into the far corner to halve Barcelona's lead.

It briefly halted Barcelona's momentum after Ewa Pajor and Claudia Pina had beaten goalkeeper Hannah Hampton.

But a lapse in concentration at a corner allowed Irene Paredes to head in a third for Barcelona and Pina added to Chelsea's pain with a stoppage-time fourth.

"Barcelona were dominating the game. When Chelsea got the goal from Baltimore you thought they got a lifeline," said former England midfielder Fara Williams on TNT Sports.

"It was very naive from them collectively for the first time I've seen this season. They lost their way. I have never seen a Chelsea team fold in the way that they did."

It was the Blues' biggest defeat since losing 4-1 to Arsenal in December 2023 and the stats showed they were second best.

They had just two shots on target to Barcelona's nine, 11 touches in the opposition box and only 33% possession.

Bompastor admitted the last 10 minutes were "not good enough" and her side made "too many mistakes" but she has not lost hope for the second leg.

"We like challenges. This will be a big challenge but we have lots of positivity," she said.

"It is a new game and a new opportunity for us to perform and we are competitors, so we want to show a better picture of Chelsea.

"I'm not concerned [Barcelona were technically better]. It's just facts. We tried our best, it was not good enough but we can show a better picture in the next leg."

But is this a step too far?

Chelsea have been branded 'mentality monsters' having come from behind several times on their way to winning domestic silverware.

They were six points behind WSL leaders Manchester City - with a worse goal difference - with three games to go last season, but still secured a fourth successive title.

A stoppage-time winner from Aggie Beever-Jones last week helped them beat Liverpool to reach the Women's FA Cup final.

And they turned around a 2-0 first-leg deficit in this season's Champions League quarter-finals, knocking out City to set up the latest meeting with Barcelona.

It will take something special to turnaround the 4-1 scoreline with Barca - but can they do it?

"It's a tough task, a task that is probably too big for Chelsea to overturn," said Williams.

"If you look back to the Manchester City game in the quarter-finals, there was a little bit of hope for Chelsea but the way it unfolded [against Barcelona], I don't think it gives Chelsea any hope of turning the tie around.

"Chelsea will have to find a way to mentally bounce back. This is something they haven't suffered under Sonia Bompastor.

"Is it out of reach? I think so. But who knows what this Chelsea side can do?"

One player who certainly believes is Chelsea defender Lucy Bronze.

The England international won three consecutive Champions League titles with Lyon before helping Barcelona to back-to-back successes in the competition.

She was emotional at full-time, taking centre stage in the team huddle and delivering a passionate message to her team-mates.

"We need to keep the ball better. We can attack them with more quality and more composure," Bronze told DAZN afterwards.

"You saw how easy it was for us to score the goal we did. It was probably our one moment of true attack and a goal came from it.

"If we have more of those opportunities then Barca are a team you can hurt on the transition - and we are good in transition.

"We've already shown in the Champions League that we can win 3-0 at Stamford Bridge, so we have that within us."