Disappointing result but good to be back at the Bridge.
What a long day, though. We drove to London from Cambridgeshire, leaving just before midday, but our arrival in central London coincided with yet another march that blocked several roads and led to a significant detour before I could leave the car in my preferred car park off Horseferry Road in Westminster.
We then got the tube to Fulham Broadway and had a bite to eat in a restaurant on the Fulham Road.
When we arrived at the ground 45 minutes before the 5.30 kick-off, large crowds - including groups of noisy, excited Barcelona supporters - were milling around outside.
(I was amused to note that the entrance I used to enter the ground in the Eighties is now called the Bovril Gate after my favourite match-day drink.)
Our seats yesterday were in the ‘new’ West Stand, now 30 years old, in a section called Westview.
There was a spacious ‘food hall’ and from our padded seats the view of the lively pre-match entertainment (and the game itself) was enhanced by a big screen directly in front of and above us.
We were pretty much on the halfway line and tickets were a very reasonable £22.50 each. Compare that to the price of a Westview ticket for the men’s team which range from £120 to £280 apiece.
(Season tickets in Westview cost between £1,615 and £3,685.)
As for the match, Barcelona were clearly the superior team, with almost 70 per cent possession and most of the other stats (shots on goal, corners etc) in their favour.
Nevertheless, Chelsea restricted them to very few genuine goal scoring opportunities and the best chances unquestionably fell to the home side who hit the bar, and the post, and missed another glorious opportunity, all when Barcelona were 1-0 up and the score was 1-1 on aggregate.
Chelsea will kick themselves because had just one of those chances been taken the outcome might have been different, but we’ll never know.
Instead, what undoubtedly swung the game in Barcelona’s favour in the second half was the referee’s decision to book Chelsea defender Kadeisha Buchanan twice in four minutes, leading to her dismissal in the 59th minute.
The first booking was justified, the second wasn’t. Indeed, from our position high up in the West Stand, the ‘foul’ was so innocuous it took several moments to realise she had been sent off.
Fifteen minutes later Chelsea conceded a penalty that, again, most people considered extremely soft, and despite pushing for an equaliser in the closing minutes, a slew of late substitutions seemed to hinder rather than help the team which lost its shape.
So, a disappointing if not unexpected result. Barcelona are the best women’s team in the world, albeit not unbeatable in a one-off match.
Two years ago, for example, they lost to Lyon, the other giant of women’s football, in the final of the Women’s Champions League.
Over two legs, however, they’re almost impossible to beat, although Chelsea have come close twice having also lost 2-1 on aggregate at the same stage last year.
Overall though I enjoyed the experience. There was a large number of children, who are no doubt priced out of watching the men’s team, and I liked the fact that, in our section at least, Chelsea and Barcelona fans sat together.
I loved the lack of bile and aggression that you get among supporters in the men’s game, not to mention the often provocative chanting designed to wind up the opposition.
One man in the row behind us threatened briefly to spoil the mood by swearing and shouting “Cheat!” as loudly as possible at the referee, but he was an outlier.
Inspired by the officials’ bright orange shirts, a more humorous, if slightly tiresome, chant was, “The referee’s a carrot”.
I lost count of the number of times it was shouted out, a situation made all the more surreal by the fact that the man responsible sounded exactly like Timmy Mallett.
Forty years ago, when I sat in the old West Stand, I never imagined that, one day, I would watch a Chelsea Women’s team play in front of almost 40,000 people at a sold out Stamford Bridge.
Furthermore, I could never have envisaged being more invested in the women’s team than the men’s, but that’s where we are.
See also: Singing the Blues
Update: “You can’t give the ball back to Barcelona for 90 minutes and expect to win the game.”
Very fair analysis of the match by Chelsea and England defender Jess Carter on the Chelsea website.
