Sonia Bompastor has issued a rallying call after Chelsea Women suffered a tough first-leg setback against Arsenal Women in the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final.
Under the lights at Emirates Stadium, Chelsea were undone despite flashes of brilliance, including a stunning strike from Lauren James.
However, missed chances proved costly, as the Blues hit the woodwork twice and saw two goals ruled out in a frustrating 3-1 defeat.
“I’m frustrated for sure about the result,” Bompastor reflected. “To be honest, I’m really proud of my players. I think it was a good performance from the team.
“It’s always difficult to say that when you lose the game, but I think we created enough to be in a better place in terms of results.
“We hit the post twice in the first 10 minutes. I’ve been in these games, and when we didn’t score, it just changed the game mentally.”
As the tie shifts toward the return leg at Stamford Bridge, Bompastor is drawing on past comebacks to fuel belief within the squad.
With momentum now against them, the Chelsea boss insists the contest is far from settled.
“We are losing by two goals now, but I told you, from now until the end of the season, we’ll take it game by game,” she continued.
“This season, nothing has been easy for us in many aspects, but we still have belief and confidence.
“I think the performance we put on the pitch tonight was a good one. So we’ll take that, and we’ll make sure that the game next week, we’ll try to get and come back from this result.
“We need to go into every game with belief and confidence. I think we still have quality in the squad, in the team, to achieve great things, but nothing will be easy.
“We need to face Arsenal again, who are a really good team, but if I don’t have confidence, I might as well just stay at home.
“It’s my job to make sure I give the belief and the confidence to the players, but I think when we analyse the performance tonight, it will bring that confidence.”
With the second leg looming, the Blues now prepare to regroup, recalibrate, and relaunch their European push, knowing that in knockout football, the final whistle is all that truly matters.
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