Pragmatic, resolute and gutsy. Sonia Bompastor showed her ruthless side and delivered a tactical masterclass as Chelsea earned a 1-0 win over Manchester City and leapfrogged them at the top of the Women’s Super League.
Lucy Bronze credited fellow full-back Katie McCabe with firing Chelsea up pre-match, having told them they “had to be dogs” in the game, and a dogged performance followed. Sandy Baltimore’s stunning strike in added time at the end of the first half was the difference as the west London side nullified the threat of a team that had scored in each of their preceding 21 games in all competitions, inflicting their first loss of the campaign.
The task for City got even tougher when goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita received a straight red for clattering into Alyssa Thompson, but despite their numerical disadvantage it was end to end right up until the final whistle.
“It always affects you when you go one player down,” said manager Andrée Jeglertz. “But we handled that and that’s not why we lose the game. I think it’s small details. It’s a tight game, it’s two great football teams, there’s a lot of situations, there’s a lot of battles and they managed to score on their big chance from a great finish. We also have a couple of great opportunities where we don’t manage to score.”
Momentum was with City going into the match after their 5-0 defeat of West Ham the preceding weekend and a 4-1 win against Inter in the Champions League on Tuesday night and they were able to welcome the injured duo Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead back to the bench to bolster their matchday squad.
At Stamford Bridge the England women’s manager, Sarina Wiegman, the US women’s manager, Emma Hayes, and passionate women’s football advocate and pundit Ian Wright were in the stands. It was a fixture that promised much, and it delivered: the league’s most potent attacks, with Chelsea having scored 28 league goals before this fixture to City’s 27, while Bompastor’s side had the most solid defence, having conceded only five times before kick-off.
It was a chess match. After a thrillingly frenetic start there was a change for Chelsea just 12 minutes in, with the centre-back Kadeisha Buchanan replaced by Veerle Buurman. There was speculation over whether the withdrawal of the Canadian defender was due to injury and Bompastor unconvincingly claimed it was.
“Yesterday in training, she got a knock to her head during contact with a teammate. She was fine after the training session. She was fine in the evening. We assessed her again this morning and everything was fine,” she said. “I just felt watching her from the beginning of the game, she was not herself. Then I took the responsibility to make the substitution. But for me, I was almost forced to do that because I know my player and I know she was not in the game.”
However, if, as many believe, the defensive switch was a tactical decision, it was a stroke of genius, as Buurman was excellent at nullifying the threat of Khadija Shaw.
“She had a really good performance against a top player,” said Bompastor. “Today was positive. But again, as I’ve told you previously, when it doesn’t work it’s not so positive.”
There were chances at both ends but they were limited and it took until the fourth of five added minutes for Chelsea to draw first blood. The goal was sensational. Baltimore collected the ball just inside the box on the right, from Ellie Carpenter, lined up her shot and sent a piledriver of a strike into the roof of the net.
It was the only shot on target in the first half.
City sought an instant reply after the break but they could not find a way through and momentum ebbed and flowed. Jeglertz withdrew Sam Coffey and Mary Fowler in favour of Miedema and Laura Blindkilde Brown to help his side assert some authority in the middle and, through Miedema, to add some creative instinct.
However, as City pushed they left themselves vulnerable on the break and when Maika Hamano’s crossfield ball was met by Alyssa Thompson with just over 15 minutes remaining it was disaster for City. Yamashita raced out of her box and clattered into the Chelsea forward, conceding a free-kick and receiving a straight red card.
Despite City’s efforts, Chelsea were in control and they held strong to blow the title race wide open.
