Our first mail of the night! Kirk writes from Pennsylvania:
No Cuthbert, no Charles. Baltimore as left-back. An interesting lineup for Chelsea.
Indeed! Bompastor has made some big calls. Baltimore, Bronze and Kaptein all make their Europe debuts for Chelsea. Alberto Toril has made six changes to his side that faced Valencia on Friday and I wonder if Bompastor rightly predicted that, and adjusted accordingly.
Latest from the earlier kick-offs:
Lyon 2-0 Galatasaray
Roma 1-0 VfL Wolfsburg
Follow along to all of tonight’s matches with our live scoreboard.
Chelsea are one of the favourites to win their group – and the whole competition – but it is not going to be easy. The group stages can always offer twists and surprises but their are a select few who are almost shoo-ins for the knockouts.
Who are they, you may ask? Tom Garry has you covered with his group-by-group breakdown and predictions.
According to Chelsea’s Lucy Bronze, the club have everything at their disposal to finally win the Champions League. And she should know, she has already won five.
This club has more things at their disposal than a lot of the teams I’ve played for. I always get asked: ‘How does it compare to Lyon and Barcelona?’ I loved my time at both those clubs, and the players and talent at those clubs was unbelievable, but they didn’t necessarily have all those resources in place to back the team, whereas Chelsea have all the resources and the talent there.
Read more from Suzanne Wrack’s preview below.
Chelsea XI (4-3-3): Hampton; Bronze, Bright, Björn, Baltimore; Kaptein, Nüsken; James, Rytting Kaneryd, Ramírez, Reiten.
Subs: Musovic, Lawrence, Périsset, Mpomé, Bartel, Jean François, Hamano, Beever-Jones.
Our first Champions League XI of the season. 📝#UWCL | #CFCW pic.twitter.com/JehZYTVslA
— Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW) October 8, 2024
Real Madrid XI (4-3-3): Misa; García, Lakrar, Mendez, Carmona; Abelleira, Angeldahl, Leupolz; Del Castillo, Weir, Redondo.
Subs: Chavas, Téllez, Hernández, Gálvez, Silva, Caicedo, Bruun, Møller, Camacho, Navarro, Feller.
📋 ¡Nuestro XI inicial!
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadridfem) October 8, 2024
✅ Our starting XI!
🆚 @ChelseaFCW #UWCL pic.twitter.com/quMUnJf5Xr
Hello and welcome to our very first live blog of this season’s Women’s Champions League: Chelsea v Real Madrid!
Chelsea have been so utterly dominant domestically this past decade but it is this elusive trophy that has escaped their grasp time and time and time and time and time again.
But one thing has changed from all of those losses: Sonia Bompastor. The French manager joined the Blues this summer after Emma Hayes sailed the high seas to take the United States job.
Bompastor has won the WCL twice as a player and – more importantly – once as a manager. Does she bring the experience needed to get Chelsea over the line?
That is yet to be seen, of course. First, Chelsea need to get through the groups and their first test is Real Madrid. The Spanish side are not as dominant as their league rivals Barcelona and their record is poor in Europe, but they do have a few stars that can hurt even the best of sides.
Let’s not waste any more time and get straight into the team news. Kick-off is set for 8pm BST at Stamford Bridge.
And, as always, if you have thoughts, questions, concerns, predictions or any thing else you want to share with me and the world, feel free to send me an email!