| Date: Saturday, 22 April Venue: Stamford Bridge, London Kick-off: 12:30 BST |
| Coverage: Live text coverage on the BBC Sport website & commentary on Radio 5 Live from 12:30 BST |
Chelsea manager Emma Hayes says her team will have to defend “at an unbelievable level” if they are to overcome Barcelona in their Champions League semi-final.
“It will be tough. We have to play a perfect game, have to execute at both ends of the pitch to give ourselves the perfect chance,” said Hayes.
“We’re a team which is used to struggling, we know how to suffer. We’re going to have to do that for a lot of the game. But we have a dressing room that are motivated and ready to perform.”
Barcelona have been even more dominant in Spain and thrashed Chelsea 4-0 in the last meeting between the sides – the 2021 Champions League final.
Chelsea ‘have learnt’ from Barca defeat
With four Women’s Super League titles in the last five seasons, plus three FA Cups and two League Cups, Chelsea have been the defining force in English women’s football.
However, in Europe there is no such aura of inevitability around Hayes’ Chelsea. After semi-final exits in 2018 and 2019, they were brutally swept aside by Barcelona in the 2021 final before falling at the group stage last season.
“The learnings from that night [v Barcelona] were significant for us as a club,” said Hayes.
“You have to go through those moments. I’m pretty certain [captain] Magda Eriksson and I have had 1,000 conversations since then about how to keep raising the bar for our team and we’ve done that.
“We are as best prepared as we can possibly be. We know what to expect. We’re better off as a result of that night.”
Back in the last four again, the remarkable manner of Chelsea’s victory over defending champions Lyon in the quarter-finals has given the Blues belief that this year could be different.
“We will get chances, as will they, we have to convert them,” added Hayes. “As a whole team, for 90 minutes, everybody has to defend at an unbelievable level to make it difficult because Barcelona average 20-25 chances a game.”
They will also have to overcome a mounting injury list, with Fran Kirby and Katerina Svitkova both out with knee injuries while first-choice centre-backs Millie Bright and Kadeisha Buchanan will miss out again.
Putellas close to Barca return
A team that Hayes describes as playing “the best football in Europe”, Barcelona have only lost one league match since the start of the 2019-20 season.
The 2021 champions could be boosted further by the return of Ballon d’Or holder Alexia Putellas, who is targeting a comeback from her serious knee injury in the second leg at the Nou Camp on Thursday.
Although there will be no Putellas, there will still be a host of familiar faces in the Barca squad for the first leg, not least England stars Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh.
But Barcelona are not invincible in Europe.
Lyon blitzed them early to win last year’s final, while Bayern Munich scored two early goals on the way to a 3-1 win in the group stage this time around.
“Every team evolves, Barca have improved in lots of ways, developed lots of experience, added new players and lots of dimensions,” said Hayes. “Equally so have we.”
