‘Better team lost’: Emma Hayes says Chelsea had Barcelona panicking

Emma Hayes said she was proud of her players following their Champions League semi-final exit after a 1-1 draw with Barcelona at Camp Nou was not enough to overturn the 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge.

“For us, we’re not going through because of the home tie,” said Hayes. “It’s very difficult to come here. If there was a little bit longer in the game, I think we would have gone on and won it. But I can’t ask for any more, I don’t know many teams that can come here and put them under pressure. They were panicking, you could hear it on the touchline. Even their manager got booked, they’re not used to that.”

The England defender Niamh Charles said: “We did not come here simply to soak up Barça pressure and then play on the break. We tried to balance knowing where and when to push and press but also when to sit and hold at the right time, because we respect them. Across this and the first leg, it’s about fine details. We’ll come again next year.”

Guro Reiten’s goal for Chelsea came four minutes after her compatriot Caroline Graham Hansen had extended Barcelona’s lead in the tie to two goals. It was a moment to stun the home crowd, which is not used to seeing Barcelona conceding given that the Catalan giants have let in just five goals in the league this season. At the Camp Nou this season in the WCL they had previously beaten Rosengard 6-0, Roma 5-1 and Bayern Munich 3-0: an average of 4.6 goals per game.

“Look at the previous results here,” said Hayes. “I don’t think you understand how challenging it is playing in this stadium with an unbeaten record in the last four years. You have to stay in football matches. I can’t criticise our performance tonight. We’re going out in the competition because of the home leg. Today, I think the better team lost.”

Hayes added that “the gap is closing across Europe and today’s performance was evidence of that.”

Responding to the claim that the better team had lost, Barcelona manager Jonatan Giráldez said: “I think there [at Stamford Bridge] we were better. For me, the result there was tighter than it should have been and in the return leg we were superior as well in general. We dominated almost the entire game.”