Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea drew with FC Twente in a disappointing first UEFA Women’s Champions League showing of the season.
A 1-1 scoreline summed up a frustrating trip to the Netherlands for the Blues as they commenced their hunt for European glory.
The young Dutch star Wieke Kaptein (who did not start the match) returned to her formative club FC Twente with her current team, Chelsea. It is not the first time she has met her old team in the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL), as the two sides met twice in the competition’s group stages last season.
FC Twente lost twice (3-1 and 6-1). They had an opportunity to redeem themselves against the London Blues tonight in their first league phase match, and even took the lead. And they truly redeemed themselves.
Chelsea were looking to start their renewed UWCL title chase on a good note after disappointingly going out to Barcelona last season in the semi-final stages with an aggregate scoreline of 8-2. Meanwhile, the Tukkers were realistic about their chances against a team like Chelsea.
Head coach Corina Dekker told Dutch broadcaster NOS ahead of the match that “this is probably not the match we win”. She also said that a lesson the team learned (under a different head coach) last season was not to play a high press against a team like Chelsea, and that they were planning to keep the spaces tight but not sit back too much.
The Lineups
TWE: Lemey; Vliek, Carleer, Knol, Tuin; Groenewegen, Roord, van Ginkel (C); Oude Elberink (68. van der Vegt), Ravensbergen (86. Andradóttir), Proost (77. Ivens)
CHE: Peng; Carpenter, Bright (C), Buurman, Baltimore (72. Sarwie); Hamano (52. Kaptein), Jean-François, Nüsken (52. Cuthbert); Thompson (61. Kaneryd), Beever-Jones, Reiten (72. Kerr)
Much-changed Chelsea start on top
With seven changes to the starting line up from their game against Manchester United on Friday, Chelsea began on the front foot. Unchanged from their triumphant meeting in Eindhoven with PSV on Sunday, Twente had to defend right away as Chelsea had the ball and managed to keep it. A couple of crosses from the right hand side from Thompson and Carpenter did not meet a team mate.
A teasing ball in behind from Baltimore found Guro Reiten who got her team the first corner kick of the match. The resulting corner kick met Aggie Beever Jones, who headed the ball just wide. Just seconds later, a great diagonal ball found Proost, who got a shot on goal which was deflected by Ellie Carpenter. Leonie Vliek should have had the opener for Twente after a couple of first touch passes found her in behind Chelsea’s defense, but she passed the ball to Jaimy Ravensbergen instead of shooting the ball past Livia Peng herself. Ravensbergen did not expect the pass and failed to capitalise on the opportunity.
After these nervy moments for Chelsea, the Blues had the ball more and grew into the game as Maika Hamano shot the ball over the goal. Sjoeke Nüsken, who started her first game of the season for Chelsea, shot the ball straight at Diede Lemey minutes after. After an uneventful period, Beever-Jones found the safe hands of Lemey as she searched for the back of the net.
Chelsea’s dominance grew as they had Twente drop deeper at the end of the first half and had a couple of shots, but crosses either weren’t met or team mates couldn’t be found. However good the team is, one could see that Bompastor rotated heavily.
Tenacious Twente hold on until the end
The Twente goalkeeper did have to come to the rescue a couple of times, but they were mostly easy saves for her. Across the pitch at the start of the second half, Twente had a shot on goal by Proost blocked. Not even minutes after, Beever-Jones was through on goal but was offside. Twente started the half brightly and spent some time on the Chelsea half, but Thompson had a goal ruled out for an offside earlier on in the build-up.
Oude Elberink almost got the ball in the back of the net on the other end after a tantalising cross in from Alieke Tuin. Twente managed to play out of Chelsea’s pressure after another great ball from Alieke Tuin on Jill Roord, who squared the ball to van Ginkel. The latter curled the ball into the far corner to give Twente the unexpected lead.
Moments later, Wieke Kaptein shot the ball into the side netting as Chelsea felt more urgency and moved the ball around way quicker. Quickly after she had another shot that went just off target. As Groenewegen lightly pushed Guro Reiten in the box, Chelsea were awarded a penalty. Sandy Baltimore picked up the ball and hit home from the spot for the equaliser. Twente were growing more tired and gave Chelsea more space to play into, but Chelsea failed to really make something of all the space they were given, as Twente worked hard to keep the score line to 1-1.
They even entered the Chelsea final third at times. Five minutes were added on as Chelsea chased a winner, and Kaptein shot straight at the keeper in the first minute of this lifeline for the Blues, but Twente held on for a draw that felt like a win for the Tukkers.
Twente drop deep whilst Chelsea leave space
Like we anticipated going off Dekker’s comments, Twente did not play a high press. They initially sat compact in a 4-3-2-1. Jaimy Ravensbergen, Twente’s centre forward, dropped deep to grab the ball frequently.
Chelsea left lots of space in behind, which was exploited by Proost and Vliek in the first quarter of the match. Leonie Vliek, Twente’s right-back inverted into midfield quite often to create an overload there. As Twente grew braver they left more space open for Chelsea to grab the ball off them. This led to a period where Twente sat in a mid block, tried to play out, were too indecisive or misplaced passes, lost the ball, which led to Chelsea opportunities.
Carpenter and Baltimore were often found high up the pitch, as they usually do with their pace. Twente did quite well in defending them initally, having Proost and Oude Elberink drop back to help fullbacks Vliek and Tuin. Later on in the first half, Chelsea used the width of the pitch better and moved the ball quicker and Twente’s wide players were getting a little fatigued. Twente tried staying compact, but did not manage to pick up Chelsea’s runners at points.
Have Twente learned Champions League lessons from Chelsea?
A rest at half time seemed to do the Twente players well, as they started the second half brightly. They played out a bit quicker and managed to find spaces better, but the trade off was that they gave Chelsea more space to play into on the transition. Chelsea did not use the space as well as they could have. Twente were building in confidence and found spaces well, leading into their 1-0 lead.
As Chelsea felt more urgency, they moved the ball around quicker which was hard for Twente to deal with. They seemed fatigued as well and defensive mistakes were made, which led to the penalty kick for the Blues. Chelsea had more of the ball in the second half but failed to create real clear cut chances. Twente defended really well but we’ve seen way better from the Blues.
To summarise: yes, lessons have definitely been learned. This was a really positive and mature showing from the Dutch side, who kept defending well even though the legs were tired.
FC Twente will travel to Leuven, and Chelsea are set to host Paris FC on Wednesday.
