Chelsea manager Emma Hayes says that European champions FC Barcelona are a long way ahead of any other club in this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League including her own side.
The South West Londoners were defeated 4-0 by the Catalan club in last season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League final in Gothenburg and Barcelona started their title defence with a 4-1 home victory over Arsenal last night.
Meanwhile, Chelsea battled to a 3-3 draw with VfL Wolfsburg at Kingsmeadow this evening in their opening group game. While The Blues collected a point, they were guilty of some poor defensive errors, a sign that there is lots of work still to be done if they are to again challenge for European silverware this season.
When speaking in the post-match press conference in which FAWSL Full-Time were present, Hayes highlighted just how far Barcelona are ahead of the other teams in this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League including Chelsea.
“Oh my god they are so far ahead of everybody else,” Hayes said. “The way they play football, the way they are both sides of the ball, they are the team to beat in Europe.
“Yes, there is the rest of us who will clamour to get in that place but they are the dominant side by a country mile.”
Reflecting on her side’s dramatic 3-3 draw with former champions of Europe VfL Wolfsburg this evening, Hayes insisted that it was a case of a point gained rather than two points dropped with her side having come from two goals down to rescue the game.
She said “All three goals were errors and I think we’ve seen our team score goals but we shouldn’t have to score three goals every game.
“It is a point gained, we have got to focus on that. We were 3-1 down so it has to be a point gained.”
Chelsea’s second game in the UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage is next Wednesday when they face Juventus in Turin.
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