Football
Chelsea obliterate Man City to send Champions League statement to familiar foe
Can we play you every week? At the culmination of four meetings in 12 days between Chelsea and Manchester City, perhaps even the answer from Sonia Bompastor’s side is a ‘no’. But Chelsea are through to the Women’s Champions League semi-finals once again, saving their finest performance of the fortnight to eviscerate the visitors at Stamford Bridge, requiring just 44 minutes to overturn their two-goal first-leg defeat and seeing out late pressure to get the job done. City will be sick of the sight of Chelsea; the one game of the four they did win proved to be most inconsequential.
Chelsea were jubilant, a mammoth effort rewarded with the comeback they knew was possible. In the past two weeks, they have won the League Cup, stretched their advantage at the top of the Women’s Super League, and progressed to a fourth Champions League semi-final in five seasons. They will face a familiar foe: the two-time defending champions Barcelona, who have defeated Chelsea in the semi-finals in the last two years. It will be the moment Bompastor’s hugely impressive debut season has been building towards and the ultimate test, but even the reigning champions will watch back this obliteration of City and feel a sense of trepidation.
For anyone in maroon, the experience facing Chelsea in this all-English quarter-final proved to be a deeply uncomfortable one, perhaps even humiliating in the first-half blitz. Judging by the frustration of Vivianne Miedema, the exasperation of Laia Aleixandri and the bewilderment of interim manager Nick Cushing on the touchline, this was a damaging and perplexing collapse. After Sandy Baltimore pulled the first back after 13 minutes, Chelsea were unrelenting; the 15-minute spell before half-time brought two more, from Nathalie Bjorn and Mayra Ramirez, yet it could have been five or six by the break.