UEFA Women’s Champions League: Barcelona draw with Chelsea, Bayern beat PSG

Barcelona: Barcelona lost its 100 per cent win record in UEFA Women’s Champions League 2025-26 but still went top of the table on goal difference, following a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Thursday.

At the other end of the table, Paris St-Germain went bottom with a fourth successive defeat, this time losing 1-3 at home to Bayern Munich.

Barcelona has dominated previous fixtures against Chelsea, losing only once in eight meetings. It has knocked the Londoners out of the Champions League in each of the last three seasons, crushing them by an aggregate score of 8-2 last year.

This time, however, Barca was fortunate to come away with a point as Chelsea found the touch that had been beyond it so far this season, both in Europe and at home.

“It was a good game,” said Barcelona manager Pere Romeu. “It’s very different to the last semifinals as Chelsea matched all the players we had and that limited us.”

Australian international Ellie Carpenter gave Chelsea the lead after 16 minutes when she hammered home from the edge of the area after being put away by Aggie Beever-Jones near the halfway line.

The Catalans levelled eight minutes later when Claudia Pina’s corner led to a scramble in the Chelsea box. When the ball fell to Ewa Pajor’s feet, she smashed it past Livia Peng, into the top right corner.

From then on, Chelsea had the best chances. Before half-time, Wieke Kaptein hit the inside of the post after a lovely lay-off from Alyssa Thompson.

In the second half, substitute Catarina Macario had a goal disallowed for a marginal offside while Carpenter, with the goal at her mercy, dragged her shot just wide.

“I think we were the better team tonight, we had a really good performance and created a lot of opportunities,” Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor told the BBC.

“We scored a great goal. I’m happy but frustrated because we could have won the game.”

The draw lifts Chelsea to sixth in the table, but it was leapfrogged by Bayern, which put PSG to the sword in Paris.

PSG captain Sakina Karchaoui gave her side the perfect start with a strike in the 16th minute, but a minute later, Linda Dallmann put the visitor back on level terms.

Just after the half-hour mark, Momoko Tanikawa slipped through PSG’s defence before drilling the ball into the back of the net, and Jovana Damnjanovic completed the win a minute from time.

Atletico Madrid climbed to eighth as it won 4-0 at Twente, thanks to goals from Amaiur Sarriegi, Julia Bartel, Synne Jensen and Fiamma.

Roma picked up its first point with a 1-1 draw at Leuven. Evelyne Viens put the Italians ahead in the 18th minute, but Jada Conijnenberg’s 71st-minute penalty meant the spoils were shared. Agencies

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