Barcelona Women 1-1 Chelsea Women (agg 2-1): Hosts through to Champions League final

As Chelsea’s players dropped to their knees at the full-time whistle, there was little more they could have done.

Emma Hayes’ players gave everything they had against arguably the best team in women’s club football. It was not enough, but there is no shame in that. 

That Chelsea stayed in this semi-final tie until the final whistle went in the second leg is impressive in itself.

This is a team that was without Millie Bright and Fran Kirby and a half-fit Pernille Harder, who could only play 15 minutes in each leg.

To lose out by one goal – with a 2-1 defeat on aggregate – shows they are not far away. As Hayes had predicted, they suffered for large parts of the second leg at the Nou Camp.

Caroline Graham Hansen put Barcelona in command with a clinical strike in 63rd minute

 Aitana Bonmati threaded the ball through for Graham Hansen to slot the ball home

But they held their own and were worthy of their 1-1 draw. It was not enough but Hayes’ players can have pride in their efforts.

Barca are 10 points clear in the Spanish league with 105 goals and just five conceded. 

This result shows Chelsea have progressed from the 4-0 thrashing they suffered at the hands of the Catalans in the 2021 final.

Barca, simply, are just too good. That Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas was an unused substitute spoke volumes. 

Putellas was back in the squad for the first time since suffering an ACL injury last summer but she was not needed here.

Caroline Graham Hansen was the star of both legs and the scorer of both Barca goals.

The winger thought she had given her side the lead at the Nou Camp in the eighth minute but her strike was rightly ruled out for offside. 

Barca, unsurprisingly, dominated possession but Chelsea’s defence held firm and managed to stop the Catalans having a shot on target in the first half.

The Blues’ resistance, however, came to an end just past the hour mark as Graham Hansen once again found the net.

Aitana Bonmati drove at the Chelsea defence before threading the ball through to her team-mate to finish through the legs of Ann-Katrin Berger.

But just as the tie looked out of their reach, Chelsea found themselves back in it as Reiten levelled the scores on the night four minutes later. 

Guro Reiten gave Chelsea a lifeline by scoring in the 67th minute on Wednesday night

Barcelona’s Graham Hansen had a first-half effort ruled out for handball in the build-up

More than 70,000 fans watched the Champions League semi-final second leg at the Nou Camp

Erin Cuthbert won the ball back from Mariona Caldentey and Melanie Leupolz lifted a pass over to Sam Kerr. Her touch was heavy and Sandra Panos rushed out to push the ball out, but it dropped kindly for Reiten to finish into an empty net.

The crowd of 72,626 – the third largest attendance in the competition’s history- was briefly silenced for the first time of the night.

Hayes knew there would come a time when she would have to take more risks and on came Lauren James and Pernille Harder with 15 minutes to go.

But Barca managed to kill Chelsea’s momentum as different players fell to the ground to waste time. The Blues, though, did not show enough in the final third. A long-range shot from James which flew over the bar summed up their frustration.