A terrible start to the second half cost Madrid the match at the Alfredo di Stéfano against Chelsea and first place in Group B of the Champions League. After completing a very complete first stretch in which they took the lead with a goal from Weir, Real was shipwrecked on the way out of the locker room in front of the Chelsea rush. Olga Carmona committed two penalties – a trip and a controversial handball – with which the team blue They came back in five minutes and changed the face of a match that until then the Toril team had controlled. The defeat left White with the feeling of losing a golden opportunity to advance to the quarterfinals as group winners for the first time in their short history. They will do it as second team, which a priori predicts a more complicated crossing and a return away from home, like when in 2022 they crashed against Barcelona at the Camp Nou in their only experience in that round.
1
Misa, Olga Carmona, María Méndez, Maëlle Lakrar, Sheila García, Filippa Angeldahl, Sandie Toletti (Athenea del Castillo, min. 72), Linda Caicedo (Naomie Feller, min. 59), Melanie Leupolz, Signe Bruun (Alba Redondo, min. .59) and Caroline Weir
2
Hannah Hampton, Lucy Bronze, Nathalie Björn, Millie Bright, Niamh Charles (Sandy Baltimore, min. 70), Agnes Beever-Jones, Guro Reiten (Maika Hamano, min. 39), Erin Cuthbert, Wieke Kaptein, Sjoeke Nüsken (Ashley Lawrence , min. 70) and Mayra Ramírez (Catarina Macário, min. 45)
Goals
1-0 min. 6: Caroline Weir. 1-1 min. 50: Catarina Macário. 1-2 min. 55: Catarina Macário
Referee Maria Ferrieri Caputi
yellow cards
Erin Cuthbert (min. 60), Sandy Baltimore (min. 82)
Despite losing, the team led by Alberto Toril grew this afternoon against a rival designed to compete for the Champions League and whom it had already known in October at Stamford Bridge, where three individual errors cost it the game. Today, with the ticket to the quarterfinals already assured and with nothing to lose, Real was a compact team in defense that conceded practically nothing to the blues until it crumbled like a house of cards in the face of a brief breeze at the start of the second half. Macario, who came in to replace Mayra Ramírez, converted both penalties and led Chelsea’s attack with her speed into space and her ability to repeat breakaways and offload the game to her teammates.
Toril initially opted to reinforce the midfield with three midfielders. In the 4-4-2, Angeldahl dropped to the right and Toletti and Leupolz formed the double pivot. Madrid bit into every split ball and had fantastic judgment in releasing the ball during the first stretch. In the seventh minute, Misa took a goal kick and the team made 17 passes through all corners of the field until Weir was practically one-on-one with Hampton. The Scot’s shot was palmed by the English goalkeeper, but the ball drew a concave parabola that slipped into the net.
The team led by Sonia Bompastor, the only woman to win the Champions League as a player and coach, crashed again and again in the first 45 minutes against Real’s defensive wall. Lakrar, now recovered from her injury, and María Méndez battled in the center of the defense with Mayra, against whom they won almost all the actions. The powerful Colombian broke free in a two-on-one against the center backs to take a slanted shot, but had no clear opportunities against Misa, who excelled with a good save against a shot by Charles at the end of the first half.
Madrid teamed up again and again to get the ball played from behind, almost always with some fantastic runs from the right side by Sheila García, a player with a great ability to combine and give continuity to the game. Before the break, Carmona touched the second with a cross shot that missed by a few centimeters and Weir missed a good position to look for the goal with an attempt directly at Hampton’s body.
Real did not extend the lead and Chelsea punished them as they left the locker room. Toril first removed Caicedo and Bruun and gave a reel to Redondo and Feller. Real once again charged against the goal of the blues again and again, but he didn’t get the definition right. Toletti hit the post and Angeldahl and Feller missed one-on-one against Hampton. Nor did Athenea del Castillo, who entered for the French midfielder, have the precision to string together the final pass in her electric forays into the area. A good Madrid, one that is showing more and more signs of truly competing in Europe, missed a golden opportunity in the Champions League in a few disastrous minutes at the beginning of the second half.
