Arsenal weather Chelsea storm to progress to Champions League semi-finals
Holders claim 3-2 win on aggregate after chaotic Stamford Bridge encounter
Arsenal are through to the Champions League semi-finals after beating Chelsea 3-2 on aggregate at Stamford Bridge.
The holders headed into the quarter-final second leg with a 3-1 lead and despite an onslaught of Chelsea pressure and a late Sjoeke Nusken goal to make it 1-0 on the night, they held on to progress to the final four of the competition.
The result means Arsenal have now made the semi-finals on back to back occasions while Chelsea have experienced their earliest exit since 2021.
This game was always going to feel a little desperate for Chelsea, given their poor defensive showing in recent weeks and Arsenal’s clinical performance in the first leg of this tie.
Chelsea had to start hard and fast, and they did, putting Arsenal under early pressure. Alyssa Thompson and Nusken both had chances to bring Sonia Bompastor’s side back into the tie but neither could find the target in the first half.
In the opening 15 minutes of the game, Chelsea looked to exploit the pace of Ellie Carpenter on Chelsea’s right-hand side. The full-back, who missed last week’s game as she was returning from the Asian Cup, regularly had Arsenal left-back Katie McCabe on the ropes, but every ball that flashed across Daphne van Domselaar’s goal was somehow not capitalised on by the home side.
Renee Slegers’ side failed to create any meaningful chances in the first 45 minutes of the game, and it wasn’t until the hour mark, when Chelsea’s desperation opened gaps for Arsenal counter-attacks, that they could really mount some dangerous opportunities.
In the 80th minute, Arsenal thought they had effectively ended the tie when Stina Blackstenius headed them into a 1-0 lead on the night. However, the VAR overturned the goal for an offside in the build up, bringing the loudest cheers heard all night from the home crowd.
That noise briefly galvanised Chelsea and the 10 minutes that followed were frantic and chaotic as both sides exchanged chances at either end of the pitch.
Lauren James was Chelsea’s brightest spark in the first leg at the Emirates, but on Wednesday night, she failed to run the show like she so often can. Arsenal man-marked the forward, hassling her at any opportunity. James still picked up plenty of touches, but it was much harder for her to find a route to goal. Her best chance came in the dying minutes when she slalomed past three Arsenal defenders and looked to curl the ball into the top corner, but van Domselaar somehow managed to tip ball wide.
Minutes later, Nusken thought she had found the breakthrough, but her header slammed off the post and rolled across the goal line. That moment summed up Chelsea’s night as they huffed and puffed, but nothing seemed to be going in. Bompastor herself was stunned, shrugging to her dugout and rolling her eyes when the ball somehow didn’t end up in the back of the net.
Nusken would eventually grab a goal for Chelsea in stoppage time, and more chaos would follow. Arsenal did everything in their power to manage the clock, and Chelsea desperately tried to grab the ball back from their rivals. The mania spilled over when Bompastor remonstrated with officials after Katie McCabe pulled Thompson’s hair and it went unnoticed and unpunished. The exchange led to Bompastor herself being sent off just seconds before the final whistle.
The desperation and disappointment was there in equal measure at full time. Arsenal celebrated with their 3,000-strong away support while several Chelsea players lay hopeless on the pitch after yet another European exit.
Despite the late drama and yet more referee controversy, Bompastor admitted that it was her side wasting big chances that led to them exiting the competition, saying in her post-match press conference: “That’s the main reason we didn’t qualify for the semi-finals tonight”.
She once again called for better officiating in the women’s game citing several officiating mistakes that she has now experienced across the Champions League as a manager.
Slegers praised the “unbelievable performance” of her team on the night and the way her team were able to “suffer for something they loved”.