Wind back nearly a year to the day at Stamford Bridge and Chelsea were on the verge of exiting the Champions League at the quarter-final stage against eight-time Champions League winners Lyon.
But two Chelsea veterans saved them at the death. Maren Mjelde, 34, scored a 128th-minute penalty and stepped up again moments later to dispatch the first penalty of the shootout. Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger was the other hero. The 33-year-old’s two penalty saves helped Emma Hayes’s side on their way to slaying the giant killers.
Things look very different now. Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Ajax in the Champions League quarter-final (they won 4-1 on aggregate) was a perfect example of that. Berger was on the bench and has made just five starts this season. That has been due to a mixture of reasons: the manager’s decision to go with 22-year-old Hannah Hampton as her first-choice goalkeeper and injuries — Hayes confirmed Berger had had concussion after the Ajax game.
Mjelde has gone from being a rock at the back against Lyon and Barcelona last year to not being a regular starter, for the same reasons as Berger. Injury has hampered her season and other centre-backs Jess Carter, Nathalie Bjorn (when fit), Kadeisha Buchanan and Sjoeke Nusken have played ahead of her.
But as Chelsea head into a potential repeat of last year’s semi-final against Barcelona, who are 2-1 up after the first leg against Norwegian side Brann, what do they have now that they did not have before?
The key missing players are Sam Kerr and Millie Bright, who are absent with an anterior cruciate ligament and knee injury respectively. When Bright was ruled out of the first leg against Barcelona last April, it was a huge blow which felt like it could significantly impact Chelsea’s plans. Had Kerr’s injury happened last year, the same would have been said about her. The game plan away at Camp Nou was to stay defensively tight and hit long to Kerr in the hope that she could create something out of nothing.
Kerr is a special player and a goal threat that has and can never be fully replaced, despite Chelsea paying a then-world record fee for January signing Colombia international Mayra Ramirez. Chelsea, however, are less dependent on those players now. Despite Bright not playing since November — Hayes said she would likely be back after the international break — and Kerr since January, they have coped well.
The squad rotation has at times been forced because of injuries, but they are more resilient and accustomed to change. Hayes has, in her words, more “diversity” and “variety” in a squad which is teeming with attacking options. Ramirez, Sjoeke Nusken, Lauren James, Catarina Macario, Fran Kirby, Guro Reiten, Johanna Kaneryd and Aggie Beever-Jones are all at her disposal, fit to play in the Continental Cup clash against Arsenal on Sunday and most have a strong case to start in that competition and the Champions League semi-final.
Such depth to Chelsea’s squad allowed Hayes to make six changes on Wednesday from their 2-0 Women’s Super League game against West Ham on Sunday. The Chelsea boss named nine top-class substitutes against Ajax: Hampton, Berger, Nusken, Melanie Leupolz, Macario, James, Kaneryd, Niamh Charles and Jelena Cankovic. Just compare that to this stage of the competition in 2023 against Lyon. On that night Hayes only named seven substitutes, including now loanees Alsu Abdullina and 21-year-old reserve goalkeeper Emily Orman.
She has curated this squad over many years following a cohesive long-term strategy alongside her general manager Paul Green and dedicated scouting department, a rarity in the WSL.
It is all very well having many pieces but, as Hayes said, changes disrupt the rhythm of the team. Getting those pieces to work effectively and adapt quickly to different systems in-game is another matter. At times in recent months the churn has been evident and Wednesday’s performance against Ajax is a case in point. Chelsea lacked cohesiveness. In the first leg against Ajax, according to Opta, Hayes named an unchanged starting XI from the 3-1 league win over Arsenal for the first time this season, ending a run of 27 games with at least one change. Gradually, however, the connections are starting to solidify, especially up front.
Variety sounds nice and looks good on paper but the question is whether Chelsea are secure enough defensively, especially given first-choice centre-back Nathalie Bjorn is sidelined with a calf injury and Bright’s lack of fitness. Last time out against Barcelona, Hayes’s defence were disciplined, structured and resolute, led by their captain Magdalena Eriksson, who has since moved to Bayern Munich, and Mjelde. The 2024 backline will have to match that performance, if not better it, over the two semi-final legs.
“We’ve been at the latter stages so many times,” Hayes said. “We know where we have to be to play in those sorts of games.”
Chelsea have accumulated Champions League experience and will play their fifth semi-final in six years. Despite the absence of pivotal players, they must harness everything they have learned under Hayes and ignite their quality to progress against the reigning champions.
(GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
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