Arsenal ended Chelsea’s perfect record in Champions League quarter-finals, their 3-1 lead from the first leg was enough to counter the 1-0 defeat in a frenetic end-to-end encounter at Stamford Bridge.
Sjoeke Nüsken’s injury-time strike gave Chelsea hope but it wasn’t enough. The manager, Sonia Bompastor, was sent off shortly before the whistle as emotions boiled over. The holders will play the winner of Thursday night’s quarter-final between Lyon and Wolfsburg, with the German side taking a 1-0 lead into the second leg.
Despite Arsenal’s two-goal cushion after their 3-1 win against Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium, the tie felt very much alive and the mood in the buildup to kick-off was thick with trepidation. The home team showed last season they can overturn a two-goal deficit, coming from behind against Manchester City at the same stage.
However, Arsenal were arguably the more in-form team coming into the tie and had got the better of the Blues in two of the three games played against them this season Alessia Russo’s late equaliser salvaged a draw in the WSL in November before wins over Bompastor’s side in the return fixture in January and last week in the first leg.
The Gunners had the advantage in more ways than one, a comfortable 5-2 win against Tottenham on Saturday in the north London derby gave them an extra day’s rest over the Blues, who had to come from behind to earn a battling 4-3 win over Aston Villa on Sunday.
Bompastor only made two changes for the critical Stamford Bridge showdown with injuries mounting and options limited, Kadeisha Buchanan replacing US international Naomi Girma to partner Lucy Bronze at centre-back, while Erin Cuthbert returned in place of Wieke Kaptein.
Sam Kerr and Ellie Carpenter both started for the second consecutive game after being rested for the first leg after their return from the Asia Cup.
Similarly, Australian duo Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley were back for Arsenal, with the latter having started at the weekend and Foord having come off the bench against Spurs.
Foord started in south London, one of three players returning to the starting XI after being named on the bench on Saturday, alongside Stina Blackstenius and Emily Fox.
Bompastor had warned that starting strongly in the game was “crucial” before kick-off and those words echoed through her team who came out fighting. Renée Slegers’ side perhaps expected that early pressure though and they weathered the storm, the goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar warned early against time-wasting while Lauren James, Kerr and Alyssa Thompson interchanged frequently which created some unpredictability to the Chelsea attack.
For all that pressure in the opening 15 minutes, the Blues had little to show for it and by half-time had failed to accrue a single shot on target. That profligacy in and around the box allowed Arsenal to settle and they upped the pressure on the home team with Russo and Foord both forcing routine saves from Hannah Hampton.
The home team’s best chance of the half fell to Thompson just past the half-hour when she skied the ball over the bar after a smart one-two with Kerr on the left.
The US international joined Chelsea in the summer for a reported £1.1m, a key recruitment in an expensive year for the club, with WSL spending on agents fees, in figures released by the Football Association on Tuesday, showing a 75% increase year-on-year. Bompastor’s side accounted for a huge chunk of the WSL’s overall spend of £3.8m on agents fees, with £1.08m spent by the club between February 2025 and 2026. Arsenal were the next biggest WSL spenders on £446,010.
Chelsea went close on the break soon after the restart, when Nüsken’s ball over the top was met by Kerr, who evaded the recovering Lotte Wubben-Moy and Emily Fox before forcing a fingertip save from Van Domselaar to maintain Arsenal’s cushion.
The changes made evidenced a key problem for Chelsea this season, Sandy Baltimore was brought on at the hour mark alongside Niamh Charles who picked up her first minutes on Sunday after 12 games out with an ankle injury, but she was the sole senior attacking option on the Blues’ bench. Meanwhile, Arsenal looked to Beth Mead for some fresh energy up top and the full-backs Taylor Hinds and Smilla Holmberg to add fresh legs at the back as they clung to their lead.
The Gunners thought they had killed the tie with 10 minutes remaining when Blackstenius headed in, but the Swedish forward was adjudged to have been narrowly offside in the build up.
The disallowed goal lit a fire under Chelsea, roared on by a record home crowd for a weekday game of 16,983 they pushed Arsenal to the edge, James forced a save from Van Domselaar and Veerle Buurman hit the post after pouncing on the parried ball, two minutes later the keeper was in action again to tip Nüsken’s header on to the bar.
Mead hit the post too but it was the Blues that would break the deadlock, Nüsken firing in at the near post deep into added time. It was too little too late, and Arsenal collapsed in relief at the final whistle, the defence of their title continuing.
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