Chelsea have amassed fairly the trophy assortment over the previous few seasons – together with 5 consecutive Girls’s Tremendous League titles – however there may be one they’ve by no means received: the Girls’s Champions League.
With the Champions League trophy nonetheless simply out of contact, the Blues have recruited large stars to attempt to get them over the road. The current winter switch window noticed some record-breaking signings and one which could possibly be the important thing to European success: Keira Walsh .
Chelsea: Can they win the Champions League?
Keira Walsh and Lucy Bronze performed collectively at Barcelona, Manchester Metropolis and now Chelsea (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Walsh signed for Chelsea from Barcelona on a four-and-a-half 12 months deal for a reported £400,000. The England worldwide, who received the Euros with the Lionesses in 2022 , had a silverware-packed spell with the Spanish giants.
She received two Girls’s Champions League titles, two Liga F titles, a Spanish Cup and three Spanish Tremendous Cups throughout her two-and-a-half years with Barca.
Keira Walsh received two Champions League titles with Barcelona (Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Nevertheless it’s not simply the silverware plaudits she brings to Chelsea, it’s her good talent and understanding of the sport. Followers simply have to look at the Euro 2022 ultimate to grasp what Walsh, who’s quantity three on FourFourTwo’s listing of greatest present gamers , can deliver to a group. She was the participant all issues had been performed by in that match and he or she has carried out that position for each group she has been part of.
Chelsea’s head of girls’s soccer Paul Inexperienced stated of what she will deliver to the membership: “She is a composed defensive midfielder, with wonderful technical attributes and world-class soccer intelligence. Her taking part in type and skill to dictate the tempo of the sport can be essential to our recreation mannequin as we transfer ahead.”
It might even be a coincidence but it surely does communicate volumes that Barcelona misplaced their first league recreation in 46 fixtures of their first recreation with out Walsh on the membership.
Walsh brings along with her a bunch of expertise but additionally a heap of ambition. She stated upon arriving on the Blues: “Not many groups have what they’ve [Chelsea] bought, they all the time discover a option to win, irrespective of how the objectives come, how the objectives look, they all the time rating.
“I believe that is the thrilling factor for me as a result of we have got so many ranges to go. Hopefully I can win the Champions League with an English group.”
Her Chelsea teammate Johanna Rytting Kaneryd additionally advised FourFourTwo Walsh provides “one thing totally different” to the membership.
The Blues Champions League ambitions are clear, not solely by the Walsh signing but additionally by the opposite strikes they’ve made in current switch home windows.
The membership broke the ladies’s soccer switch payment to herald defender Naomi Girma from San Diego Wave in January. The star has not made her Chelsea debut but due to damage however she has been hailed as “one of the best defender I’ve ever seen” by USWNT supervisor Emma Hayes. Her titles, each in a group and a person, communicate to that.
She was the primary defender to be named USWNT participant of the 12 months, an accolade she has received twice. Girma additionally aided her nationwide facet to the Olympic gold medal on the Paris Video games.
On high of Girma’s signing was five-time Champions League winner Lucy Bronze final summer season. Bronze has received the trophy with Lyon and Barcelona and has greater than proved her weight in gold – regardless of becoming a member of on a free – along with her spectacular performances for the Blues this season of their unbeaten run throughout all competitions.
Their Girls’s Champions League bid this season is on observe. Chelsea topped their group, profitable all six of their matches when arising in opposition to Actual Madrid, Twente and Celtic.
However the Blues will want their huge title signings to step up within the knock-out phases as they’ve as soon as once more been drawn on a troublesome path. Within the quarter-finals they have to overcome WSL rivals Manchester Metropolis. Metropolis are experiencing a downturn in type of late however on their day they’re as deadly as any membership with Gareth Taylor’s facet defeating defending champions Barcelona within the group stage.
If Chelsea handle to get previous Metropolis, both two-time winners Wolfsburg or three-time champions Barca await them within the semis. The Spanish group have knocked out the Blues within the final two seasons within the semi-finals so it is going to be an enormous mountain for the English membership to climb.
In the event that they handle to beat their nemesis, the opposition within the ultimate won’t be any simpler. On the opposite facet of the draw are Arsenal, Actual Madrid, Lyon and Bayern Munich.
So can Chelsea win the Girls’s Champions League this season? Completely. Have their star signings elevated their possibilities? Most positively. The membership can be hoping these huge names will come good come the enterprise finish of the season.
