Bompastor has 'clear vision' to win Champions League

Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor says she wants to help the club take the "next step" and has a clear vision of how to win the Champions League.

Bompastor is the only woman to have won the competition as both a player and a manager.

She captained Lyon to back-to-back triumphs in 2011 and 2012, and won the competition as their head coach in 2021.

The one trophy that eluded former boss Emma Hayes with Chelsea was the Champions League and Bompastor said she thrives on the pressure of helping the club win it for the first time.

"If we don't achieve that goal I will be the one you need to blame. I am fine with that," Bompastor told BBC Radio 5 Live's Women's Football Weekly podcast.

"Every day the vision in my head is really clear. I just came here to win with the team, with the squad and with the club every title.

"I know the club already won a lot of titles and had such a great success in past years. I just want to help them make the next step."

'This is the place where I want to be'

Chelsea will begin their Champions League campaign in October and have automatically qualified for the group stages after winning the WSL last season.

Bompastor said her successor Hayes has left Chelsea in a "great place" and believes the club have all the tools to go one step further and win a European title.

"They were so close last season to being in the final of the Champions League," she added. "I will try to bring my experience and winning mentality to make the next step, but there is no pressure on that.

"If you want to be honest, when you come to this club you get everything you need to perform. The club has all the infrastructures we need to perform, they have the players, they have the quality in the staff."

Bompastor was under contract with Lyon until 2025 and said it was a big decision to leave the club where she had so much success as both a player and a manager.

"I really love to be challenged," she said. "It's been part of my life when I was a player and even when I’m a coach. I need to be challenged every day, every week.

"This is why I love doing this job. Coming to Chelsea is a big move, but this is a place where I wanted to be because I could feel the ambition from the sporting directors and all the club. I just felt this is the place where I want to be."