Chelsea’s sluggish start in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier against Real Sociedad will have made far from satisfying viewing for their suspended head coach, Sonia Bompastor, but two goals from the new signing Melvine Malard contributed to a five-goal haul as the Blues came from behind to give themselves a three-goal cushion going into next week’s return fixture.
“It was a tough game, a tough first half because Real Sociedad is a really great team but I think we had a good reaction,” said Camille Abily, the assistant coach to Bompastor, who was serving a one match ban following her red card in Chelsea’s quarter-final second leg against Arsenal last season. “We were so much better in the second half, there was more space also. It’s a good win – a tough win but a good win.”
Chelsea looked rusty at the Cherry Red Records Stadium, their new home for domestic cup competitions, with WSL fixtures being played at Stamford Bridge. A commercially focused pre-season jaunt to New Zealand and Australia perhaps did not provide the best of preparatory tests prior to this fixture.
Their sluggishness was contrasted by Real Sociedad’s sharpness and a confidence that was perhaps delivered by a strong end to their pre-season which included a 1-1 draw with the eight-time European champions OL Lyonnes.
The visiting team were tenacious and well organised and opened the scoring in style when a corner was cleared to the edge of the box and the forward Ainhoa Marín, who joined from Deportivo this summer, met it unmarked, sending a looping shot in at the far post.
Despite looking far from their best, the home team drew level in the 30th minute, when Katie McCabe’s corner looked to take the smallest of touches off the captain, Naomi Girma, as it was swept in.
After the break it was a different story. Chelsea played with an energy that implied they had had the riot act read to them, or read it to themselves. They maintained their momentum despite the visiting team cancelling out Veerle Buurman’s goal from a Lauren James corner that had given them the lead for a brief four minutes.
Chelsea were a tad unlucky that Buurman’s precise sliding tackle delivered the ball to the feet of an arriving Cecilia Marcos who fired past Hannah Hampton to pull them back level. The Real Sociedad bench erupted and the goalscorer, who suffered back-to-back anterior cruciate ligament injuries in 2021 and 2023 and only fully rediscovered her form last season, was engulfed by her teammates.
Except Chelsea had a stronger bench, greater experience and exploited the high line of the visitors to far greater effect as legs tired. It took the substitute Malard 12 minutes to make her mark on her Chelsea debut as they kept their momentum despite conceding. The France striker collected Sjoeke Nüsken’s poked through-ball, sat down a defender and waited coolly for the goalkeeper to commit before rolling the ball into the empty net.
James delivered Chelsea’s fourth and gave them a more comfortable lead when she turned in Ellie Carpenter’s ball from close range. Carpenter delivered similarly for her former Lyonnes teammate Malard to get her second as the clock ticked down to put the hosts a step closer to the league phase.
On whether it is an advantage to have these tough competitive games ahead of the start of the new domestic season next week, Abily said: “For sure. We saw we started slow. We started slow, even though we’ve played some friendly games. We also played against the boys last week. It’s not the same though, it’s not competition. It’s important to have this kind of game.”
