The tone for a dramatic evening of Champions League knockout football is set a little under an hour before kick-off at Stamford Bridge: a jubilant mass of Barcelona supporters waving blue and red scarves and flags as they go through their club’s songbook, marching down west London’s Fulham Road to an irresistible drumbeat.
So compelling is their energy that Sara, a Real Madrid fan who has brought along her friend Melissa to be hardcore Chelsea supporters for the day in the Matthew Harding Stand, could not help herself. “I was joining in because of the Spanish songs and Mel took a video of me and said, ‘I’m going to blackmail you’ with proof of my disloyalty,” she says with a smile.
The second leg of Chelsea Women’s semi-final battle with the great Barcelona Femeni is a box-office event with broad appeal. Outside the ground, allegiances range from casual to committed and not always in the direction expected. Kelly, milling around opposite the Britannia Gate wearing a half-and-half scarf, laughs as she comes clean.
“I’m actually an Arsenal fan rooting for Barcelona,” she says. “I’m about to find out where we’re sitting. That’s why I didn’t come in an Arsenal top.”
But the crowd that has closed this famous stretch of Fulham Road to traffic, which skews more female and familial than the average home game for the Chelsea men’s team, remains overwhelmingly blue.
The stalls selling scarves that have pivoted to offering ones emblazoned with the names and likenesses of Lauren James, Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby are being well rewarded.
A scarf seller on the Fulham Road (Liam Twomey/The Athletic)
“We used to live in south London. Now we live in north Essex, so it’s a long way to travel (around a two-hour drive), but it’s worth it for a night like this… and it’s Barcelona,” says Gary, a Chelsea member who has brought his daughter, Lily, to the game. “I was here when we played Barcelona the year Ronaldinho scored when we went 3–0 up (in 2005). That was amazing… those Champions League nights under the lights are what you come for.”
Many have also decided to take advantage of the attractive pricing: £10 for juniors and £20 for adults to watch elite European competition at Stamford Bridge at a time when Chelsea’s men’s team are nowhere close to being able to offer the same and the club’s ownership, led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, is preparing to raise general admission season-ticket prices for the first time in more than a decade ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.
“It’s good value, it’s family-friendly,” says Martin, who has brought his young son, William, with him. “We went to Wembley (for the men’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City) last weekend and you compare the ticket prices…”
Angela, a Chelsea men’s season-ticket holder for more than 20 years, has become a regular watcher of the women since they made their Stamford Bridge debut, as Chelsea Ladies, against Wolfsburg in October 2016. “It’s quieter (than the crowd for a match here in men’s football), but that’s to be expected,” she admits. “You get a lot of families, a lot of kids, but today will be louder — Emma Hayes’ last game at Stamford Bridge.”
Something all too rare at Stamford Bridge these days: the sight and sound of European football on Fulham Road #CFC pic.twitter.com/gnynE9c4qS
— Liam Twomey (@liam_twomey) April 28, 2024
Inside the stadium, Chelsea are on a mission to ensure that is the case.
Screens in the concourse areas urge fans to take their seats from 4:45pm to witness live performances from Bring The Noise featuring DJ Tony, although most take their time outside or stock up on food and drinks. As the 5:30pm kick-off nears and the stands slowly fill, the Stamford Bridge sound system runs through its matchday staples: Blue Day, Chelsea Dagger and even One Step Beyond, the Madness classic usually reserved for the club’s full-time celebrations.
Punctuating the blaring music is a very excitable public-address announcer relentless in his attempts to pump up the crowd, imploring everyone to get on their feet as We Found Love by Rihanna reaches its euphoric crescendo, shouting “THIS IS OUR NIGHT!”
It feels reminiscent of the audience engagement common in American sports; it also has the unfortunate effect of drowning out any organic pre-match atmosphere generated by the 39,398 — a record for Chelsea Women — in attendance.
Stamford Bridge heaved to a record attendance (Naomi Baker/Getty Images )
Eventually, the attempts to generate a spectacle give way to the actual spectacle and, as both teams walk out onto the pitch, their arrival is heralded by a sea of flags in the West Stand and the soaring strings of UEFA’s Women’s Champions League anthem, it quickly becomes evident that this is a crowd worthy of any of Chelsea’s great European home nights.
The opening minutes of play establish the emotional register.
Every crunching duel settled in Chelsea’s favour is greeted with a roar, every surge into opposition territory prompts a swell of excitement. At the other end of the scale, every completed Barcelona pass heightens the tension, every reminder of Aitana Bonmati’s darting menace ripples anxiety through the stands.
There are also moments of trademark Chelsea matchday levity.
In the upper tier of The Shed End, one supporter starts a chant of ‘Zigger Zagger’. Another realises that the Barcelona fans in the tier below are singing a song to the tune of Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer and sparks a rendition of, “John Terry has won the double”, which has the same music, to drown them out.
Chelsea fans wave their flags during the Champions League semi-final (Chloe Knott – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Even the sight of Bonmati’s deflected shot squirming beyond Hannah Hampton to level the tie at 1-1 on aggregate cannot silence them for long. Millie Bright, who hasn’t played since November because of a knee injury, draws fresh cheers from the Matthew Harding Stand as she goes for her first jog along the touchline as a substitute, while Catarina Macario waves her arms to further pump up The Shed End after forcing a scrambling save out of Cata Coll.
In what remains of the first half, it momentarily feels like The Shed End might succeed in sucking the ball into the Barcelona net, first from Melanie Leupolz and then from James. But being ready to participate in a great European night does not mean the football gods will oblige.
Hope turns to despair in the stands the moment referee Iuliana Demetrescu makes what Hayes will later describe as the “worst decision in Women’s Champions League history” to send off Kadeisha Buchanan on the hour, then compounds it by awarding Bonmati a penalty 15 minutes later, which Fridolina Rolfo converts to turn the semi-final on its head.
“Same old Barca, always cheating,” shouts one woman forlornly as the European champions expertly manage the remainder of the clock.
Demetrescu leaves the field with her assistants to a cascade of angry boos at the final whistle, her status secured as the most reviled official at Stamford Bridge since Tom Henning Ovrebo in 2009. But the night ends as it began, soundtracked by triumphant Barcelona songs from The Shed End and other pockets of visiting support around the stadium.
Barcelona celebrate while Chelsea descend into a huddle (Liam Twomey/The Athletic)
Home supporters quickly filter out into the evening rain and the mood on Fulham Road is frustration with a dash of gallows humour.
The unspoken subtext of many conversations is that no one knows when, or even if, any Chelsea team will be on a European stage like this again. The men are mired in Premier League mediocrity and the women are now in the final weeks of the Hayes era with no guarantee of maintaining the same standards of excellence beyond it.
Nights that live on in misery or infamy still live on and with time, even many of the most famous defeats of the Roman Abramovich era are remembered as signposts of a golden age.
It may not be the crowning achievement of Chelsea Women or the glorious farewell Hayes wanted, but last night offered a fresh reminder that Stamford Bridge craves occasions like this.
(Top photo: Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
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