Chelsea fell to a heartbreaking defeat in West London yesterday evening, as scores from Aitana Bonmatí and Fridolina Rölfo saw the defending champions book their spot in the UEFA Women’s Champions League final.

Blues defender, Jess Carter, reflected on the performance in her post match interview- expressing that the side are ‘Obviously disappointed’ with the result at Stamford Bridge.

‘I think after such a disciplined first leg, we’re obviously disappointed with the second leg because the first goal came from a lack of discipline, jumping out at the wrong times and then you can’t give the ball back to Barcelona for ninety minutes and expect to win a game, to be honest. For all the possession they had, I think we had a few really big opportunities and against top teams, you literally get one or two opportunities. If you don’t take them, you end up with a result like tonight.’

After a stellar display of dominance from Chelsea in last weekend’s victory at Estadi Olïmpic Lluis Companys, Carter digested what she believes went wrong in her side’s performance during last night’s defeat.

“I think it’s just about staying disciplined for two legs against Barcelona. Like I said, you can’t give them the opportunities to do what they want the whole time. The way we handled the first leg was excellent with discipline, and I think that’s what let us down today, and our lack of tactical awareness in terms of taking the fouls when we needed to.

We kind of let them dictate the whole way through unfortunately, but we’ve got to get better on the ball. We can’t expect to win the Champions League when you just give the ball back to Barcelona for ninety minutes- which is what we did today.”

A controversial call from referee Iuliana Demetrescu saw Kadeisha Buchanan given a second yellow card, leaving the Blues down to ten as the clock ran down. Aitana Bonmatí was then awarded a penalty for sandwich challenge from Ashley Lawrence and Jess Carter- two things that the latter mentioned made comment on in her post match interview.

“I didn’t see Keisha’s tackle so I’ve no idea on that one. The penalty, I felt like it was a bit soft but I’ve not seen it back. I know there was contact between myself and Bonmatí, but I think she went down a bit soft. It’s one of those where if it was anywhere else on the pitch, you probably wouldn’t have given it. Maybe I’ve got to watch it back and see, but in the moment, it felt a bit soft.”

The positive note that can be derived from the heartbreak in West London was the immense support shown by the Chelsea faithful, as a sold at Stamford Bridge brought the noise in numbers. Carter packed on the praise for the Blues fans, expressing that “We’re gutted we couldn’t get the win for them today because their support was unbelievable.”

“Coming out here in this horrible weather and sticking through until the end, they were incredible from the get-go. We want to be able to fill out Stamford Bridge every time and hopefully next time that happens, we can give them three points.“