Chelsea to face Barcelona in Women’s Champions League semis after Man City fightback
LONDON: Chelsea’s women overturned a two-goal first leg deficit to beat Manchester City 3-0 and set up a Champions League semifinal meeting with holders Barcelona on Thursday. Earlier, Barca mauled Wolfsburg 6-1 in Catalonia to complete a 10-2 aggregate thrashing. In the final of four meetings between City and Chelsea in the past 12 days, the English champions wasted little time in gaining revenge for a rare defeat in last week’s first leg. The Blues had turned the tie around before half-time as Sandy Baltimore blasted into the top corner before Nathalie Bjorn headed in from a corner to level the tie at 2-2 on aggregate. Lauren James then pounced on a sloppy City pass to tee up Mayra Ramirez for the winning goal. Chelsea remain on course for a quadruple in Sonia Bompastor’s first season in charge. They beat City 2-1 in the League Cup final earlier this month to begin the quartet of meetings, are into the semifinals of the FA Cup and have an eight-point lead at the top of the Women’s Super League. However, they face the most daunting challenge in women’s football next month in trying to dethrone Barcelona. Chelsea’s quest to win the Champions League for the first time has come undone against the Spanish champions in three of the past four seasons. Pere Romeu’s side have gone on to win the tournament on all three occasions and set a record by reaching a seventh consecutive semifinal. After a shock first ever women’s El Clasico defeat by Real Madrid on Sunday, Barca showed no mercy against the side they beat to win the 2023 final. Salma Paralluelo’s quickfire double built on Barca’s 4-1 first leg lead before Esmee Brugts smashed home the third from outside the box. Substitute Claudia Pina continued the rout after the hour