Nathalie Bjorn was pleased with Chelsea’s overall performance and couldn’t fault our effort away at Hacken in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, but gave our opposition credit for the way they defended stubbornly to deny us the winning goal she felt we deserved.
The Blues ended Tuesday’s game with a huge 78 per cent share of the possession and managed 20 shots over the 90 minutes. Two of those struck the woodwork and another two found the back of the net, only for both goals to be ruled out by the officials.
In the end, despite dominating, Chelsea travelled back to England with just the one point to show for our efforts following a 0-0 draw in Sweden. That was still enough for third place in the table, though, with the Blues undefeated after four games of the league phase and yet to concede a goal in Europe this season.
The result left Swedish international defender Bjorn with mixed feelings after having to settle for a point on her return to her homeland.
‘It was a tough game,’ she said. ‘I think we had a good performance but they defended really well. We knew we would have a lot of possession and Hacken are good defensively.
‘We spoke about it, worked on it during the week, but they defended really well. I think we created enough chances to score a goal, but we couldn’t do that this time. We had massive possession, but couldn’t convert the chances.
‘They’re a hard-working team. Swedish teams are known for working really hard defensively and they really proved that. They put bodies on the line, they fought for each other and you could really see the team effort out there.
‘I think we struggled with that. We tried. We really, really tried. But unfortunately we couldn’t score a goal.’
That was despite a notable improvement in the second half, with Bjorn explaining they spent the break discussing the changes needed to improve our chances of victory, even if it wasn’t quite enough in the end.
‘We had a hard time creating some scoring chances, but I think we did, especially in the second half. It was about having more patience in our positions after half-time and I think we did a good performance, but we just couldn't score a goal.
‘We spoke a bit at half-time, to have more players in the box, and I think we did that better in the second half. We had more patience in our possession to see where the spaces were because there were spaces we could play.
‘So I think we played better in the second half, but we just need to be more clinical.’
After back-to-back draws with Everton and Hacken, that need to be more clinical in front of goal is something Bjorn and her Blues team-mates are eager to put right before our next match – a massive top-of-the-table clash in the Women’s Super League against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.
‘We said we just need to stick together, and we still did a great game. Of course we want to win, we want to have the three points, that was our aim before the game. Sometimes that doesn’t happen, but I think we did a good enough performance to get those three points.
‘It’s just that we couldn’t score the goal, so we just need to take the positives from this game and then bring that in for the game against Manchester City. We just need to sharpen up a little bit and be ready for City this weekend.’