‘Chelsea went toe-to-toe with Bonmati and Putellas’ – Lucy Bronze  | OneFootball

Lucy Bronze believes the next generation of her Chelsea teammates proved they can “go toe-to-toe with the best players in the world” after holding Barcelona to a draw.

In a hard fought clash at Stamford Bridge, Ellie Carpenter opened the scoring for the Blues before Ewa Pajor equalised to leave the two teams sharing the points in the league phase of the Champions League.

The defender highlighted the significance of several young Chelsea players stepping up against a Barca side featuring Ballon d’Or winners, saying many of them grew up idolising stars such as Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas.

“There were a lot of 20-year-olds in our team who probably look at the likes of Aitana and Alexia and think they’re my idols,” Bronze said. 

“Tonight they showed that they can go toe-to-toe with the best players in the world and not be scared. We played our game with confidence and we showed that. They’re always going to be the team to beat in the Champions League.

“I think overall we were probably on top for more of the game. It’s a good point in the league phase, so it’s a happy camp at the minute.”

Carpenter opened the scoring in the 16th minute after a brilliant run and beautiful finish, beating Cata Coll at the near post with a belter of a strike. 

Eight minutes later, Pajor equalised, with Chelsea unable to regain the lead. Carpenter missed a golden opportunity to seal the three points, dragging her shot wide just 10 minutes before full-time.

“It was an unbelievable goal,” Bronze added. “She can miss as many as she wants tonight because the one she scored was incredible. 

“She hit it so sweet, top corner with so much confidence, it was amazing. I think it was deserved as well at the time to be 1-0 up in the game, so it was really good for us.”

A lengthy ten-minute stoppage in the first half disrupted the rhythm of the match, something Bronze felt halted their momentum at a key moment.

“Both sets of players were complaining about the cold and getting injured,” she said.”They kept saying it was going to be two minutes. Every time we asked, they said, ‘two minutes, two minutes, two minutes’.

“And Erin said ‘you said that two minutes ago’. But yes, it was a shame as well, because I felt like we were really on top at that moment of the game and we were all guns blazing. We really had them on the back foot.”

Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor also slammed the delay. She said: “As you could see, in the first half we had almost a 10-minute break because of the TV, I think it went off.

“It’s already something I didn’t really like because we were in a really good momentum. And when you have to stop the players, I think it’s not good enough at this level. But yeah, maybe something no one can control.”