Chelsea fall short as Arsenal reach Women’s Champions League semi-finals

Chelsea were unable to pull off the second-leg comeback they needed to reach the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League.

They won 1-0 in front of a 17,000 crowd at Stamford Bridge, where Sjoeke Nusken scored in stoppage-time, but lost 3-2 on aggregate to holders Arsenal, who led 3-1 from the first leg.

It was a hugely disappointing night for Chelsea – and frustrated boss Sonia Bompastor was sent off shortly before the final whistle.

Her team did have chances. An early one fell to Nusken, who shot wide of the target.

Early in the second half, Sam Kerr’s strike was pushed over the bar by keeper Daphne van Domselaar and a shot from Lauren James – who scored a cracker for the Blues in the first leg – landed on the roof of the net.

With her team in desperate need of a goal, Bompastor made a double substitution and switched to a 4-4-2 formation, sending on Sandy Baltimore and Niamh Charles in place of Erin Cuthbert and Kadeisha Buchanan.

However, the hosts seemed to run out of ideas for a spell and looked vulnerable on the counter-attack, with Arsenal’s Stina Blackstenius having a goal disallowed for offside.

But twice in the space of three minutes late on, Chelsea hit the woodwork.

From a tight angle, Veerle Buurman fired the loose ball against the post after James’ shot had been parried by Van Domselaar, who then produced a fine save to push Nusken’s header from Lucy Bronze’s cross onto the post.

Arsenal then hit the post as well – Beth Mead going close with a curler that beat keeper Hannah Hampton.

There was a goal in the end. Nusken finished emphatically after good work on the left by Kerr, but it was too little too late for Chelsea.

And in the final seconds, having already been shown a yellow card, Bompastor continued to protest to the officials on the touchline and was given a red card.