We take a 3-1 aggregate lead to Stamford Bridge for the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Chelsea at 8pm on Wednesday.
First half goals from Stina Blackstenius and Chloe Kelly saw us go 2-0 up in N5 last week, before Lauren James pulled one back and Alessia Russo restored our two-goal lead.
Should we progress to the semi-finals, those first and second legs will be played against Lyon or Wolfsburg.
ROLLERCOASTER RIDE
Sonia Bompastor’s side had a topsy turvy seven-goal thriller with Aston Villa at Kingsmeadow on Sunday.
Chasity Grant fired the away side into an early lead, only for goals from Sam Kerr, Naomi Girma and Lauren to make it 3-1 to the hosts.
But Villa responded quickly, Kirsty Hanson scoring a brace bring the score level at 3-3 in an exciting opening 35 minutes.
There wasn’t another goal until the 82nd minute, when Sjoeke Nusken ensured it was the Blues who took home all three points, maintaining their two-point lead above us in the WSL, having played two games more.
WHAT THE MANAGERS SAY
Slegers: “It was a very tight game against Chelsea in the first leg, and we know it’s going to be a battle tomorrow as well so we have to be on it. It’s only half-time, so there’s a lot of work still to do for us, and that’s how we’re going to approach the game.
“Of course, we have a lot of experience in the group as players, as staff as well, how to manage different moments, and that’s what we definitely want to bring to the game tomorrow.” – Read every word of Renée’s pre-Chelsea press conference.
Read more
Every word of Renée’s pre-Chelsea press conference
Bompastor: “That’s the beauty of football. Everything can happen and I think that’s why people enjoy so much watching football games, so we are confident because that’s our job.
“We know it will be a challenge and a battle, but if you analyse the performance we put into the first leg, I think there’s a lot of belief we can play a good game.”
TEAM NEWS
Leah Williamson was spotted in open training on Tuesday and Renée says she’ll see how Leah responds to the tests from the medical team before deciding if she can be included in Wednesday’s match day squad.
Chelsea are without Millie Bright and Aggie Beever-Jones.
FACTS AND STATS
With 11 wins in a row in all competitions, we’re currently on our longest winning run since a 12-game stretch between March and September in 2019.
We’re now looking to beat Chelsea in three consecutive meetings for the first time since between June 2012 and June 2013. We would go onto extend that to six wins in a row against them up until July 2014.
The last English team to win three or more straight meetings with the Blues were Manchester City in January 2018 (4) – meanwhile the last teams to beat Chelsea three times in a single season were Everton and Notts County (then Lincoln City) in 2013.
We have progressed through each of our last 13 Champions League two-legged knockout stage ties when winning the first leg, since losing to Umea IK in the 2008/09 quarter-finals; we won the first leg of that tie 3-2 at home, before losing 6-0 away from home in the second leg. We could reach our ninth semi-final in the competition, with only Lyon (13 before 2025/26) reaching more.
Only Bayern Munich (16.4%) have a better shot conversion rate in the 2025/26 Champions League than we do (15.7%) – we have scored 21 goals this season, the same number as Chelsea, but from an xG of 14.9 compared to the Blues’ 21.6. We have outperformed our xG figure by the biggest margin this term (+6.1).
Alessia Russo is the leading goalscorer in the Champions League this season with eight, netting in her last three appearances (4 goals) – no English player has scored in four straight outings on record in the competition (since 2009/10), while the last players to do so for an English team were both Kim Little and Vivianne Miedema, who had concurrent runs for us ending in October 2019.
MATCH OFFICIALS
Danish referee Frida Mia Klarlund Nielsen has been appointed to take charge of Wednesday’s second leg, assisted by Monica Brun Lokkeberg from Norway and Linda Schmid from Switzerland.
VAR will be in use for this fixture.
Referee: Frida Mia Klarlund Nielsen
Assistant Referees: Monica Brun Lokkeberg and Linda Schmid
Fourth Official: Desiree Blanco
OUR: Katrin Rafalski
Assistant VAR: Benjamin Brand
HOW TO WATCH
In the UK, this match will be shown live on BBC Two and Disney+. Elsewhere in the world, see which broadcasters are showing the game live.
Read more
How to watch Chelsea v Arsenal Women on TV
Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
