After seeing her side fall a little short of the exemplary performance she said would have been needed to obtain a win at home to Barcelona in the semi-final first leg, Emma Hayes was still buoyed by being able to go to Camp Nou in five days’ time with a realistic chance of making the Champions League final.
One well-struck Barca goal early in Saturday’s game in front of a big crowd at Stamford Bridge currently separates the sides, and it was only those opening few minutes and some of the attacking decisions that could have been improved upon according the Chelsea manager’s post-match analysis.
‘Barcelona are amazing team,’ Hayes acknowledged.
‘We had a disappointing start and gave away a 0.03 xG chance, brilliant individual play, but we grew into the first half, scored a goal that was offside, had a big chance with Guro, and you have to be perfect to beat this side.
‘In the second half we could be better on the ball in the right moments, but it is 1-0 and I'm grateful to be in the position where the tie was not over after 25 minutes. We have to prepare for another game and now the players have experienced this, it's important we learn.
‘The whole Barcelona team is phenomenal so you have to suffer,’ she added.
‘You're going to be without the ball and one switch-off, one positional error cost us the goal. They have different threats but we limited them to as few chances as we possibly could.’
Hayes said her players had looked for the quick, early ball to Sam Kerr too often and she lamented Guro Reiten not finishing having worked herself a good chance, as well as Kerr not holding a run that led to an offside goal when Reiten did find the net.
‘We had a very deliberate plan to go forward and we didn’t do that very well. We skipped the pass we were supposed to make too often and when we got into those areas, we didn't finish.
‘Another day those go in. You aren't going to pepper them with the same volume of chances they're going have against you, so that's why I say it has to be a perfect game. We're disappointed with our forward play but we'll work on it.
‘Barcelona had a lot of the ball but we put them in the areas we wanted them to be in. Their best chances came as a result of throw-ins, transitions and quick free-kicks. The goal came from a quick restart for them.
‘So I didn't see anything I don't already know. I wanted to go into the next game in the tie and we're in the tie.’