How can Manchester City stop Chelsea in the Women’s Champions League? | Tom Garry | OneFootball

Chelsea are unbeaten in 28 games under Sonia Bompastor – with 26 wins – and arrive in Manchester for the first leg of their European quarter-final as strong favourites to progress to the semi-finals, and harbour realistic ambitions of winning their first Women’s Champions League title in Lisbon in May.

The task of trying to beat this seemingly unstoppable force, over two legs across the next nine days, falls to Manchester City, who are in the unenviable position of facing Chelsea in four consecutive games in three competitions. Nick Cushing, who has been back at the club for only a week, has said their performance in his first game back in charge, the League Cup final defeat on Saturday, gave him belief that they could better Chelsea in Europe – but what do they need to do to achieve that?

Cope with no Shaw or Fujino

Firstly, Manchester City’s team news may make you wince. Cushing’s pre-match press conference on Tuesday delivered a double‑whammy of bad news as he ruled out the Jamaica striker Khadija “Bunny” Shaw and the Japan winger Aoba Fujino from Wednesday’s first leg with muscle injuries, along with longer-term absentees including England’s Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp.

Shaw was “feeling her hamstring” after the cup final and the absence of the Women’s Super League’s top scorer’s is a major blow. That could lead to Vivianne Miedema being deployed as a central No 9 while Mary Fowler could also play centrally, or Kerolin. Meanwhile, the absence of Fujino could present an opportunity on the wing on Wednesday for the 19-year-old Lily Murphy, who scored the winning goal in the League Cup victory at Manchester United in January. They are all capable of stepping up, but it is a less than ideal scenario for Cushing.

Take their chances

Whoever gets the nod to play in City’s attack, they will need to be ruthless when they have chances to score. On Saturday, City had more than twice as many touches in the opposition’s box than Chelsea managed, yet lost the game. That is consistent with much of the rest of this season, during which City have underperformed relative to their expected goals in the WSL, whereas Chelsea have hugely outperformed theirs, scoring at least 10 league goals more than expected.

So far this season in the WSL, according to Stats Perform, City have only the fifth-highest shot conversion percentage (19%) in the WSL, which perhaps compounds their high dominance of possession; they have completed 10,325 passes in the league this term, more than 1,000 more than any other club, and have by far the highest passing accuracy percentage.

Stop Ramírez

Mayra Ramírez scored once and then delivered the cross for Chelsea’s winning goal on Saturday, so keeping her quiet on Wednesday will be one of City’s primary objectives.

That said, when asked what his team will have learned from facing the Colombia forward on Saturday, Cushing ever so slightly played down her impact, saying: “I thought we kept her fairly quiet. She’s a top player, she’s a real threat, but I thought we defended her really well. When I come into these finals, against top teams, I expect to give goal chances away against Ramírez and [Sandy] Baltimore and all these top, top, top players. It’s going to happen. We’ve got to be a threat at the other end.”

The mentality factor

Aside from all of that, though, is perhaps a larger obstacle. A psychological one. As they charge towards a likely sixth consecutive WSL title, having pipped City to last season’s championship on goal difference, and having now won all of these teams’ past three meetings in all competitions, Chelsea undeniably have the edge mentally.

Under Bompastor this season, they have displayed the aura of a team who appear to be saying “even if we do not play our best, you’re still not going to beat us”. It is a dogged champions’ mentality which they nurtured under their former manager Emma Hayes.

City have shown that, when they are at their best, they can outplay any side in Europe – the masterful victory against Barcelona in October was the perfect example. But “perfect” is exactly what they will need to be over these two ties to give themselves a chance.

Header image: [Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA]