Goals from young forwards Aggie Beever-Jones and Maika Hamano showed just how bright Chelsea’s future is as they continued their winning start to the season under Sonia Bompastor with a 3-1 defeat of FC Twente.
The win puts the Blues top of Group B in the Champions League, three points clear of their opponents Twente and second-placed Real Madrid, while Celtic bring up the rear in their maiden European adventure.
As in the 3-2 defeat of Real Madrid last week, there will be concerns about Chelsea’s vulnerability at the back, but as long as they keep winning, they have time to iron out those issues.
“Yes,” said Bompastor, when asked if that was something they were worried about. “Especially because I was a defender, and I hate conceding goals. So, yeah, I was not really happy with us conceding a goal tonight. I think we have to do a better job in that sense, and this is something we need to consider and work on.”
Few managers can field a starting XI with eight changes in it and expect the fluidity between players to be maintained, but Chelsea’s squad is a different beast. During Emma Hayes’ tenure they mastered the art of keeping their competitive edge when the squad was going through changes, and that trait is being maintained.
On paper, this was a weakened team, far weaker than the one that earned a battling 2-1 win over Arsenal on Saturday. There was no Lauren James, despite her being named on the team sheet and having taken part in the warmup, and Millie Bright, Mayra Ramírez, Lucy Bronze, Erin Cuthbert and Guro Reiten were all named on the bench. Yet, in Enschede, the Blues dominated. In the first 10 minutes they had 78% possession; by half-time it was still as high as 60%.
“In the last moment of warmup she just felt something in her foot,” said Bompastor of James’s absence. “We’ll have to assess her tomorrow in London and see how she feels.”
It took seven minutes for Chelsea to get off the mark against a team that had earned a 2-0 win over Celtic in their opening group game and had rested a few of their best players for the 1-1 draw with Excelsior at the weekend to be fresh for the visit of Chelsea – Beever-Jones’s rising strike taking a small deflection as it flew past goalkeeper Olivia Clark.
It was deserved, the 21-year-old showing the breadth of her skillset with the long-range effort in front of Sarina Wiegman, who has named the forward in her squad for England’s two October friendlies and was in the stands in her home nation.
Beever-Jones and Hamano were at the heart of Chelsea’s forward play, the former sending an acrobatic overhead kick into the empty stand behind the Twente goal and the latter collecting from Ashley Lawrence before twisting free of Danique van Ginkel and firing over.
Hamano made no mistake for Chelsea’s second. After the Blues had won possession inside the opposition half, the Japan international spotted Clark off her line, lofted the ball goalwards and it swept down and in over the keeper.
Twente manager, Joran Pot, had said prior to kick-off: “We are the underdogs, it’s as simple as that, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a chance.”
Celtic were taken apart in the Women’s Champions League as they lost 4-0 away to Real Madrid. An early stunner from Madrid’s Scotland international Caroline Weir set the home side on their way before late goals from Signe Bruun, Caroline Møller and Linda Caicedo made it a chastening evening for Celtic.
Victory gets the Spanish side on the board in Group B after they lost their opening match at Chelsea, while Celtic have lost both of their games.
After Weir’s opener, Celtic survived constant pressure until the 72nd minute when Bruun headed in Eva Navarro’s cross. Møller made it three 10 minutes from time with a chip and Caicedo converted a late penalty to complete the rout. PA Media
The home team lived up to the underdog mantle, but they did have chances.
Allowing teams to get a foothold back in games they have dominated has been a feature of Chelsea performances under Bompastor to date and in the Netherlands it was no exception. The home team were let down by their inferior technical quality, though, the final ball missing from some promising breaks, allowing Chelsea to comfortably escape any embarrassment.
Twente’s small period of pressure that had lifted the crowd was cut short when Chelsea recovered from a break and Beever-Jones fed substitute Ramírez, who was scythed down by Lieske Carleer in the box. Fellow substitute Reiten coolly converted the spot kick to extend the lead of the visiting side.
There would be some joy for the home team though, with Nikée Dianá Van Dijk latching on to a ball over the top five minutes later and outpacing Nathalie Björn, before slotting past Zecira Musovic, the home fans’ celebrations wild and loud.
There were some more bright moments for the Dutch side, but this was never going to be a big test for Chelsea. Another win, another learning opportunity and another chance to have a look at the defensive lapses that could prove more costly later in the competition.
