Chelsea 1-1 Barcelona: The Blues were left to rue the missed opportunity in the Champions League draw

Having suffered so much heartache in the past at Barcelona’s expense, Chelsea would perhaps normally celebrate a 1-1 draw with them in the Women’s Champions League.

But this was a missed opportunity.

Chelsea were the better team on the night, dominating most of the first half and creating many scoring chances.

They led for eight minutes before failing to clear a corner kick and allowing Ewa Pajor to pounce on the loose ball, canceling out Eli Carpenter’s brilliant first goal.

Australian Carpenter could have also scored the winning goal, but she cleared the ball from close range ten minutes before the end of the match and was only beaten by the goalkeeper.

Perhaps it was at that moment that manager Sonia Bombastor realized that their chance to beat Barcelona was gone.

Substitute Catarina Macario’s goal was also ruled out for offside, and when the final time whistle eventually blew, the Blues coach shook her head in frustration as her team dropped to sixth place in the league stage table – two points behind their Spanish visitors in first place.

This was an impressive performance and a radical improvement on their 8-2 aggregate defeat to Barcelona in last season’s semi-final – but their lack of ruthlessness ultimately proved costly and denied them the win they craved.

“I think it’s disappointing not to win the game, especially when you look at the statistics and the chances we had,” Bombastor said.

“We had chances to win, so I’m disappointed for that reason, but overall there were also a lot of positives to take.

“We know that in the Champions League and in important matches we need to be decisive. We talked about that and the players are trying hard.

“I’m really happy with the performance. Everyone worked hard and I think when we play at this level, we can give a performance like this.”