Chelsea Women boss Emma Hayes believes that they caused Barcelona to panic during their 2-1 aggregate loss in the Women’s Champions League. Due to Caroline Graham Hansen’s goal in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea was down 1-0 and faced challenging opponents who had not suffered a home loss since 2019. At the Nou Camp, Graham Hansen saw Barcelona extend their lead before Guro Reiten responded for the Blues, levelling the score for the second leg at 1-1. They were unable to come up with another, and Chelsea lost 2-1 overall. The Blues manager was happy with her team’s performance and blamed their elimination on their first-leg performance, although the Blues pushed to the very end for another goal.
“We are dissatisfied. Not many teams that come here are as brave as we were, in my experience. There is no doubt that at the initial stage of the games, you must survive,” Chelsea Women head coach Emma Hayes said. “It’s a really daunting setting, but I believe my guys handled every circumstance, carried out the game plan, and we became more adept at playing. We controlled the second half. I’m sad with the outcome but proud of the players.”
“I’m not annoyed. Due to the home tie, we are not moving on. Nothing about this is relevant. I believe we would have won the game if it had continued a little bit longer,” she added. “I have no further requests to make. I’m not sure how many teams come here and exert pressure on them. Even their manager was booked as a result of our worrying them. I could hear it from the sidelines. They’re not used to it, and because of their belief, we have to maintain believing in ourselves. I believe that since we gave up so quickly at home, we were eliminated from the tournament.”
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