Chelsea Women and Manchester City Women will complete their quadruple header when they face off in Thursday’s Women’s Champions League quarter-final second leg.
The visitors travel to Stamford Bridge with a first-leg lead after recording a 2-0 victory in last week’s meeting at the Joie Stadium.
Match preview
Chelsea are still dreaming of completing a quadruple in Bompastor’s first season in charge, although those hopes could be shattered in Thursday’s second leg against Man City.
The Blues began a run of four consecutive games against Man City by recording a 2-1 victory in the Women’s League Cup final to clinch the first trophy of the Bompastor era.
After going on to lose in last week’s UWCL quarter-final first leg, Chelsea returned to winning ways in Sunday’s WSL meeting at the Etihad Stadium, coming from behind to secure a 2-1 victory thanks to Aggie Beever-Jones‘s equaliser and Erin Cuthbert‘s 91st-minute winner.
As a result of that win, the Blues are sitting eight points clear at the top of the Women’s Super League table with just five matches left to play.
They will now turn their focus back to European action, knowing they will have to overturn a two-goal deficit if they are to remain in the hunt to win their first-ever UWCL trophy.
The Blues will take confidence from the fact they have progressed from each of their previous five European quarter-finals, plus they have won all 16 of their competitive home games under Bompastor.
Nick Cushing would have been fully aware of the tough challenge that awaited him when he agreed to replace Gareth Taylor ahead of a run of four successive matches against Chelsea.
After beginning his second spell with a defeat in the League Cup final, Cushing would have been proud to see his team bounce back in last week’s European clash, with Vivianne Miedema netting a second-half brace to secure a precious 2-0 victory.
Unfortunately for the Citizens, they were unable to hold to a point in Sunday’s WSL outing at the Etihad Stadium, with Cuthbert’s late goal condemning them to a fifth defeat in 10 league games.
As a result, fourth-placed Man City are now seven points adrift of the top three, meaning they may have to win the Champions League to secure a spot in next season’s competition.
Their current focus will be to advance to the semi-final for the third time in their history after previously achieving the feat in 2016-17 and 2017-18 in Cushing’s first spell in charge.
The Citizens will be hoping to become the first team to stop Chelsea from winning a home match since Barcelona won 2-0 in last season’s UWCL semi-final.
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Team News
Kadiesha Buchanan, Sophie Ingle and Femke Liefting were left out of Chelsea’s Champions League squad due to injury, while Zecira Musovic was omitted after she announced her pregnancy in February.
The Blues are also without the services of Naomi Girma, Guro Reiten, Maelys Mpome and Sam Kerr, who are all working their way back from injury.
After making changes at the weekend, Bompastor could decide to recall Nathalie Bjorn, Sandy Baltimore, Keira Walsh, Mayra Ramirez and Cuthbert.
As for the visitors, Laura Blindkilde-Brown is likely to miss the rest of the season after she sustained an ankle injury in training.
Ayaka Yamashita missed Sunday’s league defeat against Chelsea, and with the Japan international set for a spell on the sidelines, Khiara Keating will retain her place between the posts for Thursday’s second leg.
The Citizens are also without Alex Greenwood, Rebecca Knaak, Aoba Fujino, Lauren Hemp, Bunny Shaw and Risa Shimizu, while Laia Aleixandri and Yui Hasegawa are doubts after they were forced off with injury issues at the weekend.
Chelsea Women possible starting lineup:
Hampton; Bronze, Bjorn, Bright, Baltimore; Cuthbert, Walsh; Rytting Kaneryd, Kaptein, James; Ramirez
Manchester City Women possible starting lineup:
Keating; Casparij, Prior, Layzell, Ouahabi; Park, Roord, Murphy; Kerolin, Fowler, Miedema
We say: Chelsea Women 2-1 Manchester City Women
Chelsea boast a perfect home record under Bompastor’s tutelage, and while we believe they will maintain that record in Thursday’s contest, we think the visitors will do enough to protect their first-leg advantage and set up a semi-final clash against Barcelona or Wolfsburg.
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