Chelsea’s hopes of finally beating Barcelona in the Women’s Champions League took a major blow as Pere Romeu’s side walked away with a 4-1 advantage to take into the second leg of their semi-final tie.
Barcelona have dumped the Blues out of Europe in three of the last four seasons, including two semi-final disappointments in the last two campaigns, and history could well repeat itself following their dominant performance in the first leg.
Ewa Pajor opened the scoring for Barca when she tucked her shot into the bottom-left corner after latching onto a pass from Alexia Putellas, who had seen her penalty saved by Hannah Hampton earlier in the game, before substitute Claudia Pina tapped home a second in the 70th minute.
Chelsea will host the reigning champions in the second leg at Stamford Bridge on April 27 and it looked as if they had rescued their hopes of reaching the final when Sandy Baltimore’s low-driven effort found the back of the net, only for Irene Paredes’ header from a corner to restore the two-goal advantage less than 10 minutes later.
Barcelona then added insult to injury when Pina doubled her tally on the afternoon, giving the Blues a mountain to climb in the second leg if they are to book their place in Bilbao on May 25.
More to follow.
