Chelsea & Arsenal are up against it in the Women’s Champions League - will we see an all-English final?

This will be a massive weekend for women’s football in England – Arsenal and Chelsea, both in sem-final action in the Women’s Champions League, looking to tee up the first all-English final since the UEFA Women’s Cup was first instituted in 2001. Standing in their way – two of the very best teams in the women’s game, the memory of a grim night in Gothenburg and an injury crisis of astonishing proportions.

A London derby as the final of the Women’s Champions League would be a fitting way to cap off years of superlative growth and improvement in the English women’s game, a cherry on top of England’s magnificent Euro 2022 win at Wembley – but it will require both Chelsea and Arsenal to overcome the odds and put in immense performances over two legs this coming week.

On Saturday, Chelsea host Barcelona at Stamford Bridge, before the second leg at the Camp Nou on Thursday. Chelsea have already performed one minor miracle in this year’s competition – their dramatic defeat of Lyon on penalties saw them knock out a star-studded side that had won six of the last seven editions of the tournament. Now they face the one team that managed to interrupt the French side’s run – the side that crushed Chelsea 4-0 in the 2021 final in Sweden.

10 of the 11 players that started for Chelsea in Gothenburg are still plying their trade with Emma Hayes’ side, and there must be immense thirst for revenge in her squad – it was a night where Chelsea imploded in a first half where bad luck put them on their knees inside the first quarter of an hour.

Barcelona took the lead that night with just 33 seconds on the clock when a clearance ricocheted cruelly off Melanie Leupolz and looped back into the net – and they were two down not long after when an incredibly harsh penalty was awarded against them and dinked down the middle by Alexia Putellas. Rattled in the face of one of Europe’s best sides and brilliant performances by Aitana Bomnatí and Dutchwoman Lieke Martens (who has, at least, moved on to Paris Saint-Germain), Chelsea were 4-0 down in the 36^th minute and were able to do no more than steady the ship for the rest of the game. It was a cruel end to a fine run to the final.

Barcelona still won’t have the benefit of the services of Putellas – the reigning Ballon d’Or and Best FIFA Women’s Player of the Year winner – as she continues her recovery from a cruciate ligament injury, but their team is still riddled with quality and they have won all 25 of their matches in La Liga F this season, scoring 105 goals and conceding just five in return. They are a brilliant team and are clear favourites with the bookmakers.

Not that they are entirely invincible – they lost 3-1 to Bayern Munich in the group stages and were shockingly knocked out of the Copa de la Reina by Osasuna in the round of 16. They are a side that like to play with possession and rhythm, and Bayern proved they can be knocked out of that rhythm with persistent and bold high pressing. If Chelsea can play with bravado and the same indomitable attitude that allowed them to overcome Lyon, then the reigning Women’s Super League champions have a chance.

For Arsenal, the challenge isn’t just the opposition – although two-time Champions League winner VfL Wolfsburg are about as far from a pushover as you could imagine – it’s also the dreadful luck they’ve had with injuries.

Beth Mead, England’s talisman during their Euro 2022 campaign, is out for the long haul and is likely to miss the World Cup in July and August. Vivienne Miedema, the Dutch goal machine who has scored 114 goals in 132 games for the Gunners, is out after ACL surgery. Veteran Scottish midfielder Kim Little, who is joint seventh in the all-time Women’s Champions League goalscoring charts, is also out with a season-ending hamstring injury.

Their misfortune was compounded when England captain Leah Williamson went off with a serious-looking knee injury in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on Wednesday - confirmed on Friday by the club as an anterior cruciate ligament rupture, which will presumably put her out of the World Cup as well. The Arsenal treatment room is full of their best players and they will have go into the first leg on Sunday – and the second on 1 May – with an enormous amount of talent missing from the team-sheet.

Arsenal, the only English side to have won the competition after their 2007 win, have at least enjoyed recent success over German opposition – they earned a 2-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich to book their place in the semi-finals. Bayern are currently second in the Frauen-Bundesliga, two points behind Wolfsburg with a game in hand. There is no vast gulf between the two teams and Jonas Eidevall’s squad still have good players to call upon and goals in them – Swedish forward Stina Blackstenius and Australian striker Caitlin Foord have seven goals between them in this year’s Champions League, and even without so many key players, they are provide plenty of threat.

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Still, like Chelsea, they go into the semi-finals as second favourites against strong opponents. If we are going to get to enjoy the spectacle of an all-English final in Eindhoven in June, there will have to be two heroic performances from the London teams – but in making it this far, both teams have demonstrated that they have it in them. The semi-finals should be a thrilling affair.