Sonia Bompastor's side dominated possession and territory throughout, but were unable to break down a resolute Hacken defence. Bronze hit the crossbar in the first half, while both Melvine Malard and Wieke Kaptein had goals ruled out for offside on a night where the Blues created plenty of opportunities without finding the decisive breakthrough.

Speaking after the final whistle, Bronze acknowledged that Chelsea needed to show more sharpness in the final third to turn dominance into three points.

‘We probably didn’t do enough in front of the goal to get the ball and to get the win, and Hacken defended really, really well,’ said Bronze.

‘They threw their bodies at the ball all the time. We just needed to be quicker and more slick on the ball, and more ruthless in front of goal, from corners, when we got the chance to take a shot. You need to kill teams when you have so much possession and you dominate the game.

‘Hacken worked really hard. Their game plan worked really well. They were set up to get that point. It is difficult to break a team down, but we can do better than that, and we should be winning games like that.’

With a relentless schedule across domestic and European competitions, the Blues have no time to dwell on Wednesday's result as attention shifts straight back to the Women's Super League.

Chelsea host title rivals Manchester City on Saturday, giving Bronze and her team-mates a chance to bounce back immediately in another high-profile fixture.

‘We have a big game coming up in the next couple of days,’ said Bronze. ‘We just recover and we go again like we have all season. We've had different results all season, and it's a long season as well.

‘We know in the league and in the Champions League, as long as we're still up there with all the big teams, that's what we want at this time of season. And we know that we're still there.’