Barcelona are very good at football. There, a truth. One growing increasingly more indisputable as Claudia Pina dinks a curling effort in off Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton’s far post, putting Chelsea 3-0 down before half-time in their Champions League second-leg semi-final and the Stamford Bridge home crowd to a reality check no one wanted.
Here’s another truth. Watching Aitana Bonmati in person is to understand anti-gravity. A 90-minute tumble dry for the senses. That Bonmati only has two Ballons d’Or feels silly. Give it to Bonmati at the end of the season. Scratch that, just give it to Bonmati until she retires. The Bonmati d’Or.
And now, a third. Chelsea have succumbed to Barcelona for the fourth time in five years, losing a Champions League semi-final for a third successive season (Chelsea lost the final 4-0 to Barcelona in 2020-21).
A theory persists that recurring pain eventually wears down to numbness, a survival mechanism. But this defeat — 8-2 on aggregate, a total demolition job — dug deep. Chelsea have spent the past two years assembling a team specifically designed for this stage, plugging gaps of inexperience with pure experience after losing to Barcelona twice by one-goal margins.
Sonia Bompastor, two-time Champions League winner as a player and a manager, replaced head coach Emma Hayes last summer. Two-time Champions League winners Keira Walsh and Lucy Bronze were acquired. A million dollars was thrown at USWNT defender Naomi Girma, after the transfer record had already been broken to acquire forward Mayra Ramirez last January to replace forward Sam Kerr after the Australian’s anterior cruciate ligament injury. All in the name of Europe.
Losing 4-1 in the first leg meant the arithmetic of a comeback on Sunday was never going to be easy. Chelsea needed to create more and score more, while conceding less against a team that really loves a counter-attack, a team that they also had failed to score against at Stamford Bridge in their three previous Champions League meetings.
“If we score the first goal, anything can happen” was Bompastor’s refrain and eventually that of the Chelsea hopeful en route to Stamford Bridge on Sunday morning. Score early and who knows?
Bompastor applauds fans after Chelsea’s defeat (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
The 3-0 victory against Manchester City in the quarter-finals, which confirmed a historic 3-2 comeback triumph on aggregate, was the pre-match point of reference that believing in this irrational thing wasn’t ridiculously irrational.
Equally, the pre-match stats reinforcing Barcelona’s dominance in this space — Barcelona have never lost a two-leg Women’s Champions League tie after securing a first-leg victory; heading into Sunday, they had won 17 consecutive two-leg ties in the tournament — were useful in making that early hope feel saggy and airless by half-time, as goals from Bonmati, Ewa Pajor and Pina confirmed Chelsea’s fate.
Bonmati’s opener was a work of art. It’s point of origin Chelsea’s own final third, following a flurry of chances that failed to find the back of Catalina Coll’s net. And it was as if Bonmati had finally grown sick of it, all those questions of what if.
So the 27-year-old took hold of the ball and filleted her way through Chelsea’s midfield, skipping over the lunging tackle of Niamh Charles (haggard through this contest) without so much as a nod of recognition. Then, upon realising she was alone in Chelsea’s box, she finished the move herself, despite the angle of her run suggesting it was simply too cute, too comprehensively good, even for her.
And maybe this is part of Chelsea’s ongoing experience evolution on this stage. Because how do you let the two-time Ballon d’Or winner simply waltz through midfield? How do you not engage?
A similar question was asked as Charles allowed Caroline Graham Hansen to roll past her and drive a low cross into the box, which Pajor tapped home, having got the better of centre-back Millie Bright with her run.
Bonmati’s opener also laid bare the most obvious flaw in Chelsea’s squad. And that is, for all the talent on offer, Bompastor is currently without someone to take the match by the scruff of its neck, Bonmati-style. Lauren James is often that player, but where else that conviction in front of goal can come from remains the question.
Chelsea registered 17 shots at Barcelona’s goal in the second leg, putting seven on target but only finding the net via Wieke Kaptein’s 91st-minute strike and forcing Coll into her first big save of the match shortly after. Comparatively, Barcelona boasted four different goal scorers, three of whom (Pina, Salma Parralluelo, Pajor) scored in the first leg.
“The only difference between us was that we created opportunities but we were not clinical,” Bompastor told the media afterwards. “If we had scored the first goal, the game could have been different. When they score their first goal, it was too easy for them. We didn’t perform well enough.”
Bompastor attempted to inspire something in the second leg, swapping the injured Nathalie Bjorn for Girma in a back line that shifted from a back three in possession to a back four out of it. Baltimore was pushed high alongside Ramirez, Charles called at left back.
The experimentation is worth something. Fail… but at least fail better. Only the system shift exposed Charles to Barcelona’s best attackers, relied on Sandy Baltimore (who has operated left back for most of the season) to finish chances and left Walsh and Sjoeke Nusken in a shadow land and the back line in scattered remains of desperation.
Ewa Pajor scores Barcelona’s second goal (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
Electing to play Barcelona at their own possession-based, slick passing game carries a specific kind of risk. In the first two minutes, Chelsea failed to touch the ball. In the end, they succumbed to a team technically superior in almost every measure. This is Bompastor’s first season in charge. Instilling a philosophy to the point of defeating Europe’s best will take more than nine months at the helm. But the gulf in quality was for all to see.
“That’s what is difficult because you can lose a game, but you need to show more pride going into the game,” Bompastor said. “We were playing home, so it’s difficult that I will stay behind them, but at least, when you lose a game, you need to show more pride.”
On a train trundling late into London Euston before kick-off, a dad stood with his young son and daughter. Debating the potential outcome of the match, the girl didn’t hesitate. “Barcelona. Because Barcelona always win.” When pressed, she doubled down. “No, dad, Barcelona will win. And Chelsea will be like headless chickens.”
Chelsea weren’t completely headless here, but the manner of defeat raises existential questions. No country has had more losing semi-finalists in this competition than England, with Chelsea responsible for four of the 14 defeats.
“One of the only positive things we can take is that I clearly know what we need to do in order to compete against Barcelona,” Bompastor said.
“I’m not going to shy away from the ambitions of the club. I want to assume them and this club has everything to perform to make the quadruple. We’re all sad and frustrated about it, so now we reflect and find how we make it possible.”
(Top photo: Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
