Struggling for inspiration with your predictions for this week’s Play Predictor competition? Then let our person on the inside at Cobham help you out with these little tips, facts and pointers ahead of tomorrow’s deadline!
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With the men’s team not in action this weekend and Chelsea Women hosting Barcelona at Stamford Bridge in a massive Women’s Champions League tie, I took a short walk across our Cobham training ground to the women's building to see what hints I could pick up from Emma Hayes and her players for the first leg of our semi-final.
The Blues will definitely be up for this game, after defeating the reigning champions Lyon in a dramatic penalty shoot-out in the quarter-finals and now facing the side which beat us on our only appearance in the competition’s final a few years ago.
The obvious choice
Okay, you don’t need me to tell you that you’re on pretty safe ground in backing Sam Kerr to find the net, but let’s face it, you’d have to be mad not to at least consider the Australian superstar in your thinking for these predictions.
Only one player has scored more than Kerr’s five Champions League goals this season and the way she has been combining with Guro Reiten – who is second in the competition’s assists chart with five herself – promises more chances could come her way.
Kerr is looking as sharp as ever after scoring in Chelsea’s last two games and her habit of playing off the last defender to get in behind could also be highly effective if Barcelona continue to defend with a high line, as they have in previous rounds.
Even if the Spaniards sit deeper for this first leg in England, it is Sam’s ability to score all kinds of goals which make her such a threat. Already in this season’s Champions League she has hit the back of the net with both feet and her head, from inside and outside the box.
The big-game player
Kerr is far from the only name worth keeping in your thinking for this massive match against Barcelona, though, and Maren Mjelde is definitely one I would suggest considering. She has shown time and again how much she loves the big occasions, and they don’t get much bigger than this.
The experienced Norwegian’s penalty-taking duties also make her a strong candidate to find the net, given the Blues have already scored from the spot three times in the Champions League this season outside of shoot-outs, two of them converted by Mjelde.
Of course, that includes her unstoppable penalty right at the end of our quarter-final to level the scores with Lyon, but even from open play Mjelde has a habit of popping up at key moments, especially in Europe. Who could forget her injury-time winner against Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals four years ago?
With injury concerns over Millie Bright and Kadeisha Buchanan, the versatile Mjelde may line up alongside Magdalena Eriksson at the back against Barcelona and, with so many players in Hayes’ squad who love to run at defenders in and around the box, she could well get another chance from the penalty spot tomorrow.
The hard choice
If you like to take a few risks I have an outside tip for the romantics among you – back Pernille Harder to make a magical return to the action after her lengthy absence.
Harder hasn’t played for Chelsea since November after undergoing surgery on a hamstring injury she picked up on international duty, but has looked eager to make up for lost time since coming back to training and was named among the substitutes by Hayes for our FA Cup semi-final win over Aston Villa last weekend.
It's unlikely the Danish playmaker will be thrown straight into the starting line-up for this game, but if Chelsea find ourselves needing an extra spark in attack you wouldn’t rule out Harder coming on in the second half to make an impact.
After all, the Champions League seems to bring the best out of Harder, as shown by the fact she remains our second-highest scorer in this season's competition, getting three goals to her name in the two games before that injury ruled her out.