Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor has urged her side to “take faith and confidence” from the 1-1 draw against Barcelona in the Champions League.
The Blues took the lead through Ellie Carpenter’s brilliant strike in the 16th minute, but parity was restored when Ewa Pajor equalized shortly afterwards.
Catarina Macario had the ball in the back of the net for the home side at Stamford Bridge but her goal was ruled out for offside following a VAR check, while Carpenter missed a great chance with ten minutes to go.
Chelsea produced 0.99 expected goals (xG) to Barcelona’s 0.91, while both sides registered three shots on target from nine total attempts.
Bompastor believes her side have done enough to win all three points against last season’s runners-up, but stressed that the Chelsea players should be proud of their achievements.
“I think we were the better team tonight, we performed very well and created a lot of chances,” Bompastor told BBC Sport.
After the match on the bridge. #UWCL pic.twitter.com/24cZEuRT1C
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“We scored a great goal. I’m happy but frustrated because we could have won the game.”
“Every time we play with this attitude and mentality, the players need to know how good we can be.
“We played against a strong opponent, everyone knows the qualities of Barcelona. It was really positive to be able to achieve this performance against them.”
“The team should be proud of today’s performance, but also take faith and confidence in this performance.”
Barcelona remain at the top of the league stage despite losing a 100% start to their European season.
The Spanish side defeated Chelsea in the semi-finals of the competition last season, beating them 8-2 on aggregate after 4-1 wins in both legs.
Head coach Pere Romeu had a different opinion to Bompastor on which team played better, but nevertheless praised Chelsea’s performance.
“I think Chelsea had a great first half. In the second half we were a little better,” said the Barcelona boss.
“Chelsea were very stable and they put us under pressure. That meant the second balls were theirs.”
“It was a good match. It’s very different from the last semi-finals as Chelsea were able to match all the players we had and that limited us.”
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