Chelsea Women defender Jess Carter admits the Blues only have themselves to blame following our Champions League exit at the hands of Barcelona, highlighting the areas we need to do better if we want to end our wait to lift the trophy.
For the second season in a row, our Women’s Champions League campaign was ended in the semi-finals by a 2-1 aggregate defeat to Barcelona.
On this occasion, we went into the second leg at a sold-out Stamford Bridge with a 1-0 lead, but were unable to hold on to it as the Spaniards equalised in the first half, before a red card and penalty after the break sealed our fate.
However, Jess Carter wasn’t interested in blaming the defeat on decisions by the officials, insisting Chelsea’s inability to maintain the same level of performance over both legs cost us a place in the final.
‘You can’t give the ball back to Barcelona for 90 minutes and expect to win the game,’ said Carter.
‘For the possession they had, I think we had a few really big opportunities and against top teams whenever you get big opportunities, if you don’t take them you’re going to get a result like this.
‘It’s just about staying disciplined over two legs against Barcelona. You can’t give them the opportunity to just do what they want the whole time.
‘The way we handled the first leg was excellent with the discipline and I think that’s what let us down on Saturday, and our lack of tactical awareness in terms of taking the fouls when we needed to.
‘We kind of let them dictate the whole way through unfortunately and we didn’t punish them with our few chances. We’ve got to get better on the ball. You can’t expect to win the Champions League when you just give the ball back to Barcelona for 90 minutes, which is exactly what we did.’
Carter also felt the defeat was especially painful given the fantastic support the Blues received from the Women’s first sell-out crowd at the Bridge.
‘We’re so disappointed we couldn’t get the win for them because their support was unbelievable,’ she added. ‘Coming out here in the horrible weather and singing through to the end.’
There isn’t time to dwell on the weekend’s European exit, though, with attention quickly returning to domestic duties and the small matter of the Women’s Super League title race.
That begins on Wednesday evening, when we travel to Liverpool for the first of our games in hand and the chance to begin reeling in Manchester City at the top of the table.
‘We’ve got no choice, we’ve got to get up and go again. We’re back in on Sunday and got a game on Wednesday. We have to dust ourselves off and go again, we don’t have a choice.’