It’s a great day to be a Chelsea fan!

Chelsea FC overcame their 0-2 deficit going into the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal matchup against Manchester City. They end a night under the lights with a 3-0 win at Stamford Bridge, ending the series 3-2 and advancing to the semifinals where they’ll play Barcelona FC.

Due to the luck of the draw in multiple competitions, Chelsea played four consecutive matches against Manchester City in the span of 13 days. First was the Subway Cup Final, second was the first leg of the Champions League Quarterfinal, third was a regular season Women’s Super League (WSL) match, and fourth was this second leg of the Champions League Quarterfinal. In the end Chelsea won three of the four matches and they were the three most important. They won their first trophy under Sonia Bompastor, seemingly secured the league title, and advanced to the Champions League Semifinal.

Going into the match, Chelsea had work to do. After losing the first leg 0-2, they would have to score at least three goals to get past City, and it would require more if the opposition put any in the back of the net. I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous about it.

However, Chelsea came out of the gates guns blazing, and it felt like Chelsea could have had at least a couple more goals during this game. I was a bit surprised to see afterward that a lot of the numbers like possession and passing were pretty close between the two teams. It felt like Chelsea was just barraging City’s goal throughout the game. When City could get the ball in their attacking third though Mary Fowler and Kerolin were threatening. However, despite being on the field, Vivianne Miedema wasn’t able to put anything in the back of the net having seemed to take on a deeper role. Casparij and Ouahabi fought hard down the wings to keep Lauren James Johanna Rytting-Kaneryd contained, but it wasn’t enough. Goals from Baltimore, Bjorn, and Ramírez put Chelsea 3-0 ahead by halftime and they held on until the end. It just felt like every player knew their role and was firing on all cylinders.

Injury seems to be the story of Manchester City’s 2024/2025 season. Fully fit they have excellent players up and down the pitch. However, key players have been in and out pretty much the entire season. On match day their bench was five people deep, which is pretty wild.

In the time that I’ve been following Chelsea, it seems like there comes a point in each season when they come up against something fairly daunting. Last season it was leveling a dramatic goal differential to win one last league trophy with Emma Hayes. This season isn’t over and there’s still hills to climb, but Chelsea knew they needed to come into this game and win without giving an inch. Some luck may have been involved with City’s injuries, but Chelsea did what they needed to do. Now they still have a chance at the elusive Champions League trophy.