Chelsea have a mountain to climb if they are to reach their first Women’s Champions League final after Wolfsburg came from behind to register an impressive 3-1 victory over the WSL1 leaders at Kingsmeadow.
Ji So-yun’s early opener was soon cancelled out by Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir before Maren Mjelde’s own goal just before the break and Lara Dickenmann’s second-half volley left the Blues needing something remarkable at the AOK Stadium next Sunday to progress.
Such is the glut of injuries at Chelsea that Emma Hayes was able to name only five substitutes. All five of the players named in the PFA WSL1 team of the year in midweek were in the starting XI, however, and two of them combined to give her side the perfect start inside two minutes. Fran Kirby showed tenacity on the right to force a low cross in to Ji, who collected the ball with her back to goal but turned her defender beautifully before firing low into the corner.
That should have settled any nerves in the home side but it was not long before the visitors, who have ended Chelsea’s Champions League participation in each of the past two seasons, got on the front foot and they were level less than 15 minutes later. Ewa Pajor burst free down the left before delivering the perfect cross for Gunnarsdóttir to head home.
While this is Chelsea’s first visit to the semi-finals, Wolfsburg have been to the final three times in the past five editions (lifting the trophy twice) and the control that the German side showed throughout the first half suggested that, while Chelsea are improving, a gap in quality still remains.
That said, despite dominating possession and territory, Stephan Lurch’s side struggled to pierce the Chelsea backline, with Pajor’s burst through and shot the only clear sight of goal until just before the break when the visitors got the goal their pressure deserved.
With half-time approaching, Chelsea failed to defend a dangerous free-kick into the box from deep and Mjelde, under pressure from Alexandra Popp, diverted past her own goalkeeper, Hedvig Lindahl, to give Wolfsburg the lead.
Kirby, Chelsea’s lone striker, had cut an isolated figure for much of the first period and there was a clear effort to get the wide players, Drew Spence and Erin Cuthbert, closer in support in the early stages of the second half. The improvements rendered by those tactical tweaks were almost for nought, though, when Pernille Harder tumbled on the edge of the Chelsea box under Millie Bright’s challenge. Harder, however, failed to test Lindahl with the set piece.
Wolfsburg, though, have steamrollered their way through this competition thus far – a 15-2 aggregate win over Atlético Madrid in the round of 32 was followed by a 7-3 triumph over Fiorentina and a 6-1 win over Slavia Prague – and there was a clear hunger for more goals. Another duly arrived midway through the second half, with Dickenmann acrobatically volleying home Caroline Graham Hansen’s deflected cross.
With their hunger sated, the Wolves were happy to ease off and invite Chelsea to find a way back into the game. That the increasingly tentative home side struggled to create anything of note in the closing stages, despite Eni Aluko being sprung from the bench to join Kirby in attack, bodes rather ominously for the second leg.
