What went wrong for Arsenal and Chelsea in the first legs of the UWCL semi-finals and can they turn things around?
There's work to do for both Arsenal and Chelsea after their semi-final first leg defeats in the UEFA Women's Champions League this past weekend.
Arsenal and Chelsea were again feeling the disappointment after their first leg games in this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League, just like they had done in the quarter-finals. Both WSL sides will be going into Sunday’s second legs needing to come from behind. Only this time, it’s for a place in the final.
It was a pretty bad weekend for both teams who now face an uphill fight to turn things around, and even that feels like something that is easier said than done given the challenge that will be in front of them.
For Arsenal, it was a 2-1 defeat at home to Lyon, giving them the task of needing two goals to at least win the semi-final and book their spot in Lisbon. Chelsea on the other hand, face a much more challenging mission having lost 4-1 against Barcelona, leaving them an almighty deficit to overturn.
In this piece, I’ll go through what went wrong for Arsenal and Chelsea, plus whether I think they actually can replicate their achievements from the quarter-finals and come from behind again in this season’s competition knockout stages.
Arsenal rue missed chances
The loss for Arsenal on Saturday was a bit more of a respectable one compared to their WSL counterparts the following day, but Renee Slegers’ side will absolutely have rued a lot of missed opportunities to take a better scoreline with them to Lyon this weekend.
Arsenal had most of the ball in this one and yet it didn’t feel like they were the team that had control. There was a sense of some early nerves in them and it was leading to a few sloppy moments, one of which nearly caught them out very early on when Manuela Zinsberger palmed a shot out, which fell to former Arsenal player Danielle van de Donk, who luckily for the Gunners hit the side netting. It was an early sign of a team that was ready to punish them for any errors.
Arsenal were causing their own problems in this one and when you are up against a frontline as deadly and more times than not very clinical, you have to make sure you are doing things right. Unfortunately though in the 17th minute, Arsenal got their press wrong and it ended up leading to a situation where Kadidiatou Diani was onside as she made the run in behind Arsenal’s defence from an Ellie Carpenter pass.
Initially you are wondering if Diani is offside because of the angle which makes it look deceiving, but Emily Fox hasn’t dropped as deep forward as the rest of her fellow defenders and that plays Diani onside and ruthlessly the French forward makes it 1-0.
Having turned the momentum back to their side, Arsenal had a game plan in trying to get through this mid-block that Lyon had deployed in nullifying Arsenal’s attacks. The game plan from the Gunners seemed to be about getting crosses into the box and hoping that striker Alessia Russo would be able to get on the end of one. This didn’t happen though, and while this plan was understandable seeing as Lyon didn’t have defender Wendie Renard playing, it meant that her aerial threat was missing, so something was there to exploit. Ultimately though, it didn’t work out.
Chances weren’t going for them and the worry was setting in that nothing was going to come off for Arsenal. But sometimes all it takes is a moment to change things and often a bit of luck as well. VAR came to their aid as referee Alina Peșu was asked to look at the monitor and despite no claims made by any player at the moment, Lyon keeper Christiane Endler does catch the head of Leah Williamson when trying to punch the ball away. The pen is awarded and Mariona Caldentey slots the ball away and raises the home fans’ hopes inside the Emirates Stadium. And then Lyon struck again.
All the elation and belief that Arsenal fans felt was sucked out again as Arsenal found themselves quite simply cut open by a Lyon attack. It all started from the backline as Vanessa Gilles gave it to Damaris Egurolla, who then found a wide open Lindsay Heaps in their own half, and she had the freedom to pick out a pass to Ada Hegerberg who laid it to Amel Majri, who then also did a one-touch pass of her own to give the ball to Melchie Dumornay. Then it’s all on the Haitian forward as she drives with pace, having too much for Emily Fox to deal with and getting right through the middle of the defence to then finish the ball past Manuela Zinsberger with a lovely finish to a pretty simple move from Lyon.
It was Lyon in full flow as they worked it from defence to attack so swiftly and showed just why you have to have the fine details down to a tee against a team like them. The quick combo produced here was attacking football at its simple best and just like that Arsenal were behind again and that’s how it ended.
There were some positives to take from the performance by Arsenal because I think they will be thankful that it is only a one-goal deficit that they have when they head to the Groupama Stadium. It wouldn’t be right to say that they are completely out of it. I do think they have a slight chance, but they will have to have looked back on the things they did wrong here and come out fighting on Sunday.
I also wonder how Lyon will approach the tie as well and whether they operate in a similar sort of way in the second leg, or do they feel that confidence to take it to Arsenal even more now. Because they have the lead, it might not be too surprising if they do. However, they will be mindful that Arsenal are a team capable of scoring goals and if they do slip up defensively after what has been one of their strongest elements to their overall play in this season’s competition, then perhaps Arsenal could be there to take advantage as long as they find their shooting boots.
Is it already over for Chelsea?
Talk about giving yourself all to do in the second leg Chelsea. Calling it a bad game from Sonia Bompastor’s side is a bit of an understatement. It did not go well at all, and from what we have seen in the past when Chelsea have gone to Barcelona and tried to get a result to help them go through, they at least have looked calm and look like they can cause a problem or two. On Sunday though, their controlled approach didn’t work as intended.
The problem that they had was that from the very start of the game, there seemed to be a bit of a nervousness about them. The physicality wasn’t as strong and their counter-attacking threat wasn’t on show all that much except for when they did get a goal and what a finish it was from Sandy Baltimore. However, they had conceded two goals already by that point.
It could have been 1-0 early on when a penalty was awarded after Nathalie Björn was judged to have done a handball in the penalty area. Alexia Putellas had her rather poor penalty saved by Hannah Hampton to avoid an early setback. Although Alexia Putellas had a moment to fix things as she found some space in behind Chelsea’s midfield and sent Ewa Pajor through on goal, where the Polish forward finished well and added another goal to what has been quite the opening campaign for her in a Barcelona shirt.
Barça’s second goal which came in the second half was from someone else who has found some goal-scoring form as Clàudia Pina scored another goal in the Champions League for this season. She took advantage of a bit of a mistake from her ex-teammate Lucy Bronze who didn’t track her well enough, allowing Pina the chance to tap in from close range.
Pina’s second goal after Irene Paredes had made it 3-1 by heading in from a corner was also one where poor defending came into account for Chelsea. At 2-1, you’re thinking that while it hasn’t been great, at least the tie isn’t away from them. But in quick fashion as the Barcelona attack just eases its way through creating chance after chance, that is when it all suddenly just fell away. What makes it look worse is that it isn’t something that we ever feel used to seeing from any Chelsea side over the years, let alone one that has lost just two games all season long.
I have to touch more on this third Barcelona goal because that felt like the telling moment of what was wrong in this one. Defenders that you know are reliable in these situations were disorganised and markers were not tracked, which is what made it all surprising to see Paredes freely get the header at the back post and restore a nice cushion for her team.
The question is what happened to cause that disorganisation and how can they avoid that happening again? It looked like runs were not tracked and you can even see that Paredes is unmarked even if a defender has an eye on her. Because of how the ball reaches the back post, Bronze is tracking it backwards while Paredes has the momentum and can beat her to that ball and head it in nicely. Concentration was the key and it went missing in so many vital moments.
It’s possible to lose games in football to very good teams that have a lot of threats, but you can still lose games terribly. Now they’re up against it and to be honest, it feels like a near-impossible task to turn it around. Barcelona put on a showing that proved they can do what we know they are very much capable of doing, even against the best of teams. It felt like a stamp of approval as well on Pere Romeu and the job he has done, having taken over from Jonatan Giráldez in the summer. Plus, just having Ewa Pajor added to what was already a strong attack, yet still felt it needed a number nine to complete the puzzle. The stars performed in the big game when they needed to and it reminds us that stopping this almost unstoppable force is no easy task.
Chelsea are going to have to pull off something incredible. Something that will eclipse the comeback they managed against Manchester City by quite some feat given the quality of the opposition that will be in front of them, and the fact of the matter that Barcelona just don’t lose games all that often, especially ones of the magnitude in which Chelsea will have to achieve if they are to reach the final in Lisbon.
What do you think? Do Arsenal and Chelsea have a chance to turn things around, or will it be another Lyon vs Barcelona final in the UEFA Women’s Champions League final?