Conceding possession

It's well known that Barcelona like to keep the ball. While Bompastor's Chelsea would normally like to dominate possession, especially during home matches, we set up in a way that allowed our opponents to have the ball in areas where they would not be able to threaten the goal.

A look at the team stats from Thursday's 1-1 draw shows that Pere Romeu's side had 58 per cent of the ball, but in the crucial metrics, they could only match the Blues. Both sides had nine shots on goal during the 90 minutes, three of which were on target apiece.

Chelsea edged the number of touches in the opposition box, with 29 to Barcelona's 18, and put in 14 crosses as opposed to 12 from the Catalan outfit.

Midfield block

Bompastor explained after the match how she had learned from last season's two-legged Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, in which we lost 8-2 on aggregate.

The head coach felt that she was perhaps a little too ambitious against the high-quality opposition side last season, and in this rematch, instead set up a midfield block to negate their strengths. That meant crowding the centre of the pitch, as shown in the average position graphic below.

In keeping Barcelona occupied where they were least dangerous, the Blues were able to exploit the channels with explosive runs from wing-backs Ellie Carpenter and Sandy Baltimore. This was most apparent during Carpenter's opening goal, but the duo both had chances to score during the rest of the match.

Meanwhile, Carpenter was able to complete the second-most passes (38) of any player on the Chelsea team, and Baltimore registered the fourth-highest figure with 34.

Captain Cuthbert

Chelsea stalwart Erin Cuthbert was named skipper for the evening and led by example as she made key interventions all over the pitch.

The Scottish midfielder created the most chances of any player on the side (three) and took the highest number of shots on the night (three), whilst also ranking highest for completed passes (40) and ball recoveries (10).

Indeed, it was Cuthbert who won the ball back on the corner of the box and crossed the ball into the box before Wieke Kaptein had her shot tipped onto the post, and she also played an inch-perfect free-kick onto the head of substitute Catarina Macario before the American had her goal disallowed for offside.

As can be seen on the touch map above, the midfielder popped up all over the pitch to play her part in securing the result against Barcelona.