Long before even half-time, it was apparent that the only comeback at Stamford Bridge was going to be the return of Barcelona to the Women’s Champions League final again, to once more meet Lyon. Chelsea just couldn’t get close, in scoreline, in performance, or even in terms of basic space.
Much of the game seemed to be the excellent Aitana Bonmati just gliding around the pitch unbothered, free to do with the ball what she wanted. And that was often something exquisite, such as when she hammered the brilliant first goal into the corner to set things off.
The 4-1 scoreline of the first leg was repeated, to make it a chastening 8-2 on aggregate. There’s actually a lot to take from that, despite the game quickly evolving into a non-event as a contest.
No one in football can really replicate what Barcelona do. This is the outstanding team of the age, now fittingly on the brink of the European gold-standard feat of three Champions Leagues in a row, to potentially make it five in six years.
And who would currently rule out Barcelona matching the record of five in a row, making it all the more fitting that it is Lyon – the only team to manage that feat – now blocking their way.
The persistent return of such clubs does point to wider issues, too. For all the burgeoning popularity of the women’s game – witnessed in the 26,702 crowd at a gloriously sunny Stamford Bridge – as well as England’s very status as European champions, they haven’t been able to translate that into success at European club level. Chelsea are still the only English club to reach a final in 19 years, and that was when they were also eviscerated 4-0 by Barcelona in 2021.
Some of that is just down to fact the Catalans are one of the game’s superclubs. It is very difficult for anyone to reach that level.
There are two elements within that, however, that both Chelsea and English football could do with thinking about much more. They are all the more pertinent since so much of this match reflected an issue that arose in the 2023 World Cup, and is going to be a theme of the summer.
Barcelona and Spain have a superior assembly line of talent. It can be witnessed in how many of these players illuminate the world champions. Five of the starting XI lifted the trophy in Australia, with Salma Paralluelo also coming off the bench.
Bonmati displayed all of her talent as the best player in the world with that first goal on 26 minutes. As impressive as the aesthetic was the sheer audacity. To even try the shot from that angle was illustrative of her effervescent quality.
Fifteen minutes later, there was a goal appropriately showcasing the entire Catalan-Spanish style, as Barcelona played their way through for Ewa Pajor to tap in after Caroline Graham cut the ball back. How many times have we seen Barcelona and general Spanish teams score exactly that type of goal over the years?
From that, and with Barcelona so comfortable they could just enjoy themselves, Claudia Pina just decided to go for it. Mere moments after Pawor’s goal, the forward drove a supreme arching long-range strike in off the post.
That was a moment when it felt like this could get very bad for Chelsea. Niamh Charles’s error for Paralluelo’s late goal was instead the worst it got.
It was still hard to square with the reality that Sonia Bompastor’s team featured four English European champions of their own, but that is where there is a bigger issue. It is not just the development of talent. It is the context the talent plays in.
You can bridge a technical gap with tactics. You can’t if the opposition’s very tactical ideology is superior. Barcelona displayed that defined ideology, one that most of their players have grown up with. The real key to this is how it amplifies the ability of their players, and the team as whole. Hence displays that look so thoroughly convincing.
Chelsea, for their part, did display some typically creditable resilience. Things might have gone a little differently had Sjoeke Nusken scored an early chance. Chelsea also prevented that bad moment just before half-time becoming utterly humiliating. Catalina Coll was forced into at least three fine saves, and substitute Wieke Kaptein finally gave the crowd something to cheer about.
By that point, the talk of comebacks had long gone. The real discussion should be how Chelsea and English clubs get to this level, and back into Champions League finals. An 8-2 aggregate scoreline didn’t really tell the reality of the gap.
