Barcelona are on observe for the final 4 of the Ladies’s Champions League after the holders routed Wolfsburg 4-1, whereas Manchester Metropolis’s 2-0 win handed Chelsea their first defeat this season in Wednesday’s quarter-final first leg motion.
In contrast to the 2023 Champions League closing between the identical two opponents, received narrowly 3-2 by Barcelona who got here from two objectives down, Wednesday’s last-eight conflict was an uneven affair.
A primary-half own-goal by Caitlin Dijkstra, adopted up by two strikes in fast succession within the second interval by Irene Paredes and Salma Paralluelo put Barcelona firmly in management.
Janina Minge pulled one again inside the ultimate quarter-hour for hosts Wolfsburg, earlier than Barcelona’s Sydney Schertenleib added a late fourth.
“Wolfsburg are a very good group however we’re assured in our sport, in our group, in our gamers,” Paredes advised UEFA.
“We had been so critical and we did not make errors – that is key in this sort of sport. We at all times needed to keep alert as a result of they’ll play lengthy balls and damage us.”
Wolfsburg’s Minge advised DAZN: “At instances we felt like headless chickens on the pitch… within the second half, we had been simply chasing after them.”
Winners of three of the previous 4 Champions Leagues, Barcelona went forward after 26 minutes when Ewa Pajor, who spent nearly a decade on the German membership, pressured Dijkstra into conceding an personal aim from Aitana Bonmati’s cross.
Barcelona took management of the tie with two objectives in three minutes after the interval.
Paredes tapped in from shut vary after Wolfsburg did not take care of Barcelona’s Fiftieth-minute nook and simply three minutes later Paralluelo’s end capped an incisive raid from the guests.
Minge gave Wolfsburg hope when she headed in with 79 minutes gone, however Swiss teenager Schertenleib’s tremendous curling end with two minutes remaining put Barcelona firmly in command of the tie.
– Miedema double –
If Barcelona can end the job within the second leg, they are going to face the winners of Manchester Metropolis’s tie in opposition to Chelsea.
Metropolis maintain the benefit after their dynamic show in Manchester avenged final weekend’s League Cup closing defeat in opposition to Chelsea.
Ladies’s Tremendous League leaders Chelsea are chasing a primary Champions League trophy.
However Chelsea’s shock loss ended their 28-game unbeaten run in all competitions in Sonia Bompastor’s first season in cost, leaving their hopes of reaching the semi-finals hanging by a slender thread.
“Tonight was a troublesome efficiency,” Bompastor stated. “It is the primary time we now have been overwhelmed, in order that’s not a drama.
“We nonetheless have one sport to reverse the state of affairs and there’s hope for us. Our ambitions are nonetheless there.”
Given the absence of key ahead Khadija Shaw, it was a formidable outcome for Metropolis’s interim supervisor Nick Cushing, who took over from the sacked Gareth Taylor final week.
“Tonight’s a large increase as a result of we have been getting plenty of knocks and are lacking plenty of gamers, and this outcome offers us confidence,” Dutch ahead Vivianne Miedema advised TNT Sports activities.
This was the second of 4 successive conferences between the groups within the house of simply 12 days, with a Tremendous League conflict looming on Sunday adopted by the European second leg on March 27.
Metropolis took the lead on the hour when Mary Fowler’s cross brought about havoc within the Chelsea defence and Miedema’s shot crashed in off the crossbar.
Miedema struck once more within the 89th minute when the substitute took Kerolin’s go inside the world and drilled into the underside nook.
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