Head coach Sonia Bompastor and experienced midfielder Erin Cuthbert have called on Blues supporters to head to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night and use their voices to give Chelsea players the extra edge needed to secure another memorable Champions League comeback.
Chelsea face a similar scenario to last season's Women's Champions League quarter-final at Stamford Bridge. We will need to overturn a two-goal deficit to progress after we lost 3-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium last week, despite an impressive performance.
We can take confidence from our comeback from 2-0 down against Manchester City last season, as we scored a blitz of goals before half-time when Sandy Baltimore, Nathalie Bjorn and Mayra Ramirez all weighed in during the 3-0 victory.
There was a special atmosphere inside Stamford Bridge that night, and Bompastor – along with senior player Cuthbert – wants to hear that same support again from a strong Chelsea contingent in the stands.
'From a player's point of view, I think momentum is so important,' said Cuthbert. 'When we get the fans on side, they really give us that extra push.
'When we’re pushing for a goal, and the margins are really fine, or it’s the top teams in Europe that we're playing against, we’re going to need them.
'I think they can be the difference if we match the performance on the pitch that they want to see. They can be the difference for us.'
Bompastor echoed her midfielder's comments and acknowledged that it would be up to her Blues' team to give the supporters something to cheer about from the get-go.
The head coach feels that a strong start to the match, just as we had last season when Baltimore scored against Man City after 14 minutes, will deliver enough enthusiasm for fans inside the stadium to give the players a real lift.
'From a manager's point of view, it is similar to Erin's,' she began. 'I need to make sure the game plan matches the expectations of the game, and we need to have a strong start in the game to bring the fans with us.
'As Erin mentioned, I think if we can score first, we will be in a good place to bring them with us, but for sure, they can make the difference. So that's our mindset going into the game tomorrow.
'We need to put in a really strong performance from the first minute of the game to make sure we bring them with us.'