A resolute FC Barcelona took the first round at Stamford Bridge. A goal from a spectacular Caroline Graham Hansen, MVP of the match, was enough for her to take the lead in the tie and she will have to finalize the pass to her fourth final in five years at the Camp Nou next Thursday (6:45 p.m.).
Barça did the most difficult thing, opening the scoring four minutes into the game, but Giráldez’s team had a hard time gaining control against a very defensive Chelsea that made it difficult for them to get the ball out. Excessively hasty and disorderly, he got several scares from a Chelsea that feels much more comfortable in this type of match. The fearsome Sam Kerr and the omnipresent Guro Reiten put Sandra Paños’s reflexes to the test, seeking to neutralize the great goal scored by a huge Caroline Graham Hansen. The Norwegian was without a doubt the best of Barça, and of the game. He only needed four minutes to unleash his magic at Stamford Bridge, an impossible whiplash for Berger who celebrated with the more than 300 Catalan fans who traveled to London.
FC Barcelona got the game back on track, but unable to string together long possessions, they found themselves immersed in the type of game Emma Hayes was looking for, a runner with many long balls and no weight in midfield. Halfway through the first half, Barça and Chelsea took advantage of Berger’s physical problems to improvise a ‘time out’ while they attended to her and adjust things. She worked better for Hayes, since shortly after Chelsea would chain the two most dangerous occasions. A stretch by Paños prevented the first after a shot from Sam Kerr who combed the ball for Guro Reiten and went to the balcony of the area to receive and finish off a ball with power that, after touching Irene Paredes, would end up in the hands of the goalkeeper Alicante.
The Reiten-Kerr connection would be almost lethal again shortly after after a quick combination between the two that would end up in the back of the net, but which was canceled for offside by the Australian. Barça couldn’t find a way to impose their football. Aitana, turned into an impromptu coach on the green, asked her teammates for a head, but the blaugrana did not flow. The entry of Mariona Caldentey, who replaced Geyse at minute 60, helped the team to have more pause, even when Hayes had brought on Lauren James at half-time in a clear bid to go for the game by multiplying their offensive weapons together with Kerr and Reiten. A bet that he would later double with the entry of Pernille Harder. The Norwegian, injured since November, reappeared in a Stamford Bridge that stood up to receive her long-awaited star.
In front of their fans and with all their stars on the table, Chelsea tried to look for a better result before traveling to Barcelona, ​​but Barça resisted the Kerr-Harder-James trident, even without Lucy Bronze, who had to retire injured at the 66 minutes of play. She even had options, albeit timid, to widen the gap for the Blaugrana team with shots from Salma Paralluelo, Fridolina Rolfö or Graham Hansen, until she was substituted, exhausted, at minute 84. But the score would not budge. The Camp Nou will pass sentence.
