Chelsea are through to the quarter finals of the Champions League after defender Maren Mjelde converted from the spot moments after England’s Toni Duggan had crashed a penalty against the bar at the other end.
“It was strange when the tie went from [almost being] 2-1 to being 3-0 and game over – bonkers. But that’s football,” the Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, said.
A last-minute goal from the substitute Emelyne Laurent to earn a 1-1 draw did not affect the outcome, but it did mean Chelsea conceded their first goal in five games, since their 2-1 defeat against Brighton ended their unbeaten season.
Duggan’s effort, after Claudia’s shot hit the stand-in full-back Niamh Charles’s arm, was Atlético Madrid’s third missed penalty of the tie, with the Chelsea goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger twice having saved spot-kicks in the first leg.
Mjelde struck high to the right of the former Chelsea goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl one minute after Duggan’s miss, having also scored a penalty at Kingsmeadow last week before Fran Kirby put the Blues two goals up in the tie.
Hayes had warned that despite the advantage from the first leg her Chelsea team would need to be “awake and ready” and she was right.
With each side perhaps wary of the explosive start to the first leg, in which Chelsea went down to 10 players and Atlético had a penalty saved within the first 12 minutes, and Chelsea weary from the intense first leg and West Ham game at the weekend, the first half was far more reserved.
“I think my team were a bit leggy today,” Hayes said. “We played with 10 players last Wednesday and completed some physical stats that for some players were season highs, so it was going to take its toll on the team today.”
It took until the 33rd minute for a shot on target to be registered and it fell to Atléti, with Leicy Santos turning into space before hitting a right-footed shot at Berger. Shortly after, the England forward Duggan smacked a dipping volley towards the corner but Berger got across well to push it away. Duggan has struggled for form this season. She has only one league goal for Atléti, in an 8-1 defeat of Deportivo de La Coruña in November.
Hayes had made one, enforced, change to the team that started at Kingsmeadow with the stand-in centre‑back Sophie Ingle, sent off in the first game, swapped for Charles, who slotted in at right‑back with Mjelde shifted into the middle. The club captain, Magda Eriksson, whose injury meant Ingle started at the back in the first leg, was fit enough for the bench having sat out the previous game.
This time the game sprang to life in the last quarter of the game rather than the first with Duggan hitting the crossbar with her penalty in the 75th minute and Mjelde converting after the ball hit Sonia García Majarín’s side and she was adjudged to have handled the ball by the referee, Stéphanie Frappart.
Laurent struck into the far corner in the 90th minute but it was too little too late for the struggling Spanish side.
“You’ve seen us at best with 10 players last week and even when we weren’t at best, we’re still winning,” said Hayes. “That is a sign of a good team. To become a great team we have to keep finding the other levels in ourselves. We haven’t accomplished anything yet.”
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/38pOpEq
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