Well, we lost - as we thought we would, but still a very enjoyable night.
Arsenal showed so much more passion and fight than on Sunday - still don't understand what happened to them in that Cup Final. Some silly mistakes and annoying errors (that first goal 🤦♀️) but Barcelona are truly a step above and obviously deserved to win.
Bit disappointed we didn't score but glad we at least had some chances and played some good football.
Thought Keets, Beth, Cait and Jord were absolute terriers pressing and some excellent tracking back and defending too - especially Keets and Beth, they really worked hard all night long. Some very important defensive work from Jen and Steph - just a shame about a couple of miscues/mistakes really being taken advantage of by Barca. Lesser teams may not have always been able to turn those into goals but no doubt about it with Barca. Another excellent performance by Manu, keeping the goal-line vaguely respectable! She got lots of applause from the crowd at the end and seemed to really appreciate it - even did a wiggly little dance 😂
The crowd was great - brilliant atmosphere and we cheered them til the end. There didn't seem to be an announcement about the attendance (anyone know what it was?) but for a cold and rainy week night in December it seemed like a pretty good turnout, and it was certainly an engaged crowd throughout.
We may have lost (and resoundedly so) but I'm proud of our girls anyway and I'm not even particularly disappointed. It's weird, it's a very different feeling to Sunday - probably a big part of it is the difference in expectation going in and the performance of the players as well. We know we're not at Barca's level yet but at least the team played like they wanted to win and weren't afraid of them. Plus, unless we cock it up against Hoffenheim (still a possibility tbh) we should get through to the quarters anyway so there wasn't as much to lose.
All credit to Barca, fantastic team and a pleasure to watch, although more so when they're not playing us! Does anyone else get a bit of tunnel vision when they watch their team though? I don't really see/appreciate the other team in the same way I would if I was watching a game as a neutral. Even so, still absolutely appreciated them and Frido's goal was the pick of the bunch 👏
A few random things:
A man on the train on my way saw my scarf and said "You going to the Champions League game? Hope it's a good one!" Things we very much like to see - he knew immediately and didn't for a minute assume it was for the men, visibility is so important!
Frida was obviously looking for someone in the crowd at the end and then there were Maren, Guro, Fran and Erin waving at her! The Chelsea crew there to support their friends on both teams - wonder if they had any flashbacks to last year?!
Wish I'd got a pic a minute before when they were waving at Frida but I was too busy realising who it was!
Nice as well to see Yanks on Sky Sport on the way out - again, love to see these things!
All in all a fun night, and definitely a lot more fun than Sunday - but hopefully they'll get their groove (and goals!) back for these last three games before Christmas and then have a well deserved rest!
