“It just feels like a longer half-time, that’s all it is,” said Emma Hayes matter-of-factly about the week-long wait between Chelsea’s 1-0 Champions League defeat of Barcelona and the second leg at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening.
“We’re at the midway stage of a game that’s a minimum of 180 minutes long. There may be adjustments for half-time and we’re ready for the second half, that’s how I present it to the players.”
That “first half” was a big first half, though. Chelsea inflicted Barcelona’s first home loss in more than five years, and it was the first time the Catalan club had failed to score since April 2022. Not only did they not score but a hugely impressive Chelsea defensive performance limited them to one shot on target, deep in added time.
The margin, though, is fine. Chelsea achieved the perfection Hayes said they needed to beat the Champions League holders for the first time, but repeating the trick will be challenging. Hayes expects Barcelona to up their game.
“They’re the best team in the world,” she said. “I’ve said it a million times: they know how to be in this position … Barcelona can hurt you in so many different ways. We have to be so, so mindful that you can’t switch off for one single second. This is a game that’s played in the head first and foremost and we know we absolutely have to be perfect to progress.”
Chelsea frustrated Barcelona by slowing down the game and contributing to it being very stop-start. That led to the Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí accusing them of “playing dirty”. Hayes was untroubled by the comments. “Everything Barcelona say they’re entitled to. They’ve earned their position, they’ve earned their status in Europe, they’re the best team in Europe, they can say whatever they want. [Bonmatí] is a super player, best in the world, even better live, I know she has a respect for her opponents.”
In Hayes’s final season at Chelsea before she takes over as head coach of the US women’s national team, she still has the two biggest prizes available to her: another league title – with her side neck-and-neck with Manchester City, who have lost their star striker Khadija Shaw for the remainder of the season to a foot injury – and an elusive Champions League. Victory over Barcelona would earn a final against Paris Saint-Germain or Lyon.
The emotion of what it would mean to reach a second final is buried for now, though. “I’ve done this so long I’ve trained my brain to not be in those places,” Hayes said. “The only person who can send me over the edge is my child. When I can’t handle a situation with a five-year-old, then I’m a bit flustered. Melanie Leupolz and I were talking about it today: being a parent is the hardest thing in the whole world, being a football manager and with my team is a privilege and an honour. I’m with my football family and I like being in the trenches with them.”
Looking down from the fringes of the trenches will be a close-to sold-out Stamford Bridge crowd. It has taken Chelsea a long time to achieve that at the main stadium.
The conditions though, were ripe, for Hayes’s last game at the Bridge. Win or lose, there is an opportunity to draw new layers into the fanbase and build connections between those in the stands and the players on the pitch.
“The litmus test of all of that is the first game at Stamford Bridge next season,” said Hayes. “Making sure our marketing, commercial and comms teams have the right strategy to turn 35,000 tomorrow into 35,000 for the beginning of next season. I’m only here to challenge the club and grow the game and of course I’m delighted. Our girls deserve the opportunity, but this is one more step on the way to growing the women’s game.”
Chelsea will have Millie Bright, Nathalie Björn and Maren Mjelde available, all three having trained. Whether Hayes sticks to the winning formula or changes things to prevent her team from being too predictable remains to be seen. How will Barcelona set up?
“I don’t know. All I can do is prepare the team for the possibilities, whether that be a false 9 coming lower, whether that be access to the pivot a little more, whether it be more direct play with Salma [Paralluelo] moving to the left and Alexia [Putellas] maybe as a false 9; there’s a lot of permutations. But I cannot fixate on that.
“We can prepare for some of the tactical details but we have to play our game too, our game is not Barcelona’s game and we’re not trying to be Barcelona – nobody can be Barcelona. But that doesn’t mean you can’t win, it just means you have to play to your best strengths and recognise that no matter what Barcelona will do, they will pull anything apart.”
