Bompastor urges to Chelsea to take confidence from Barcelona draw
Chelsea drew 1-1 against Barcelona in the Champions League, and Sonia Bompastor believes there was plenty to be happy about.
Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor has urged her side to “take belief and confidence” from their 1-1 draw against Barcelona in the Champions League.
The Blues went ahead through Ellie Carpenter’s brilliant strike in the 16th minute, but parity was restored when Ewa Pajor equalised soon after.
Catarina Macario had the ball in the back of the net for the home side at Stamford Bridge, but her goal was disallowed for offside following a VAR check, while Carpenter went on to miss a great chance with 10 minutes to go.
Chelsea produced 0.99 expected goals (xG) to Barcelona's 0.91 as both sides registered three shots on target from nine total attempts.
Bompastor believes her side did enough to win all three points against last season’s runners-up, but insisted the Chelsea players must be proud of their performance.
“I think we were the better team tonight, we had a really good performance and created a lot of opportunities,” Bompastor told BBC Sport.
“We scored a great goal. I'm happy but frustrated because we could have won the game.
“Any time we play with this mindset and mentality, the players need to now how good we can be.
“We played against a strong opponent, everybody knows Barcelona's qualities. To be able to have this performance against them was really positive.
“The team need to be proud of the performance today, but also take belief and confidence from this performance.”
Barcelona remain at the top of the league phase despite losing their 100% start to their European campaign.
The Spanish side knocked Chelsea out in the semi-final stage of the competition last season, defeating them 8-2 on aggregate after 4-1 wins in both legs.
Head coach Pere Romeu had a differing view from Bompastor on which team played better, but praised Chelsea’s performance nonetheless.
“I think Chelsea had a great first half. In the second half we were a bit better,” said the Barcelona boss.
“Chelsea were very stable and they pressed us. That meant the second balls were theirs.
“It was a good game. It’s very different to the last semi-finals as Chelsea matched all the players we had and that limited us.”
