Chelsea defender Lucy Bronze claimed her side were “miles off it” during the 2-0 defeat to Manchester City in the Women’s Champions League quarter-final first leg but insisted the situation could be rectified.
Substitute Vivianne Miedema climbed off the bench to score twice and fire City into a commanding position in the tie, handing Sonia Bompastor her first defeat as Chelsea boss, four days after lifting the League Cup.
The Blues face an uphill battle in the second leg to secure an elusive first Champions League title, although Bronze is confident they can do it when the two sides meet again at Stamford Bridge on March 27.
“I don’t think we were good enough,” Bronze told TNT Sports. “I don’t think we had enough effort in our press. We were sloppy in our passing.
“City were better organised. We were miles off our game. Sonia said that at half-time. It improved a little bit in the second half, but that’s obviously when they got in and got their goals.
“Although we are two goals down, we are completely confident that we can turn this around.
Vivianne Miedema scored twice as Man City beat Chelsea
“It will be the biggest game of the season so far. It’s all still to play for. We know we can score goals. We’ve got goals all over the pitch.”
Despite it being the first defeat since taking charge at the club, Bompastor has taken full responsibility for the result but was also quick to echo Bronze’s confidence regarding the next meetings with City in the Women’s Super League on Sunday and in Europe four days later.
When asked about her emotions after the game, Bompastor said: “A lot of frustration. For me, it is about analysing now. I take all the responsibility for the performance and result. I am hard on myself but people expect the manager to turn things around.
“I think today is a difficult night and sometimes it happens in football. It is okay for everyone to be disappointed but from tomorrow, we need to analyse the performance.
Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor on the sidelines during the 2-0 defeat to Man City
“It’s difficult tonight but my job is to make sure from tomorrow, we have a positive mindset. What you can control is in the future. We have only lost one game in the season, it was important but it happens.
“I will stay confident going into the second leg. We have a lot of quality in the squad and the freshness will be important. We have depth in the squad.”
City have already laid the blueprint on how teams can react to disappointment after match-winner Miedema admitted how “disappointed” Nick Cushing’s squad were after falling short in the final against Chelsea at Pride Park last weekend.
Miedema celebrates her opener
City asked questions of their opponents throughout, with 17 attempts on goal in the game, but suffered a 2-1 defeat after Yui Hasegawa’s own goal sealed the win for the league leaders.
“This should be our standard,” Miedema said. “We were really disappointed after Saturday [the League Cup final].
“Today was special, and hopefully we can put the same performance in next week.
“We’ve missed a lot of players and I am really happy we got this result because it gives us confidence and hopefully we can take that into Sunday and the game next week as well.”
