'Questions will be asked' of Bompastor and Chelsea

Chelsea reached the final of the Women's Champions League in 2020-21

"Questions will be asked" of Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor following her side's underwhelming 1-1 draw with Twente in their Women's Champions League opener, says former England forward Lianne Sanderson.

Chelsea were favourites heading into the tie, having put nine goals past the Dutch champions across two group-stage meetings last season.

And after tournament heavyweights Barcelona, who have knocked Chelsea out in the semi-finals in each of the past three editions, thrashed Bayern Munich 7-1 on Tuesday, the Blues would have been hoping for a statement win of their own as they search for a maiden European trophy.

Instead, they were forced to settle for a point, with Sandy Baltimore's 71st-minute penalty cancelling out Danique van Ginkel's opener for the hosts.

Chelsea's "disjointed" performance was the product of the seven changes made to their starting XI, according to Sanderson, who said Bompastor "took Twente lightly" and made the "wrong team selection".

Ellie Carpenter, Millie Bright, Baltimore, and Aggie Beever-Jones were the only players retained from Friday's Women's Super League draw with Manchester United.

"Questions will be asked of Sonia because this is the competition all Chelsea fans want to win. It's only one game but you look at other teams, like Barcelona, and they got off to a flyer," Sanderson said on Disney+.

"Bompastor made too many changes. It looked disjointed. Too many changes, the chemistry wasn't there. A lot of the players that started had minimal minutes.

"Fans will feel frustrated. Twente deserved that. Most people expected Chelsea to go on and win it, so fair play.

"Ultimately, Bompastor is going to have to make some difficult decisions in all competitions. She is still trying to find her best XI. She can't keep everybody happy.

"Tonight it was the wrong team selection. They took Twente lightly and Twente deserved it more."

'Not a good result at all'

Chelsea outperformed Twente in many of the stats. They registered 20 shots to their hosts' nine and had 64% possession.

Guro Reiten had several attempts on goal, Alyssa Thompson had a second-half strike ruled out for offside, Sjoeke Nusken and Baltimore both brought saves out of Diede Lemey, and Maika Hamano put a golden opportunity over the bar in the first half after a smart pullback from Oriane Jean-Francois.

But for all their control and dominance, they only converted one of their six attempts on target - something Bompastor said is "not enough" in a European competition.

"It's not a good result at all," she told Disney+. "We wanted to start the campaign with three points and a victory.

"Out of possession, I'm quite happy with the performance, even if we conceded a goal. In possession, you need to show more desire, especially when you are in the box. We created a lot of opportunities and couldn't score more than one.

"In the first half, we had multiple situations in the box and 18 crosses, but only six times we were first on the ball. This is not good enough when you play a Champions League game."

'Chelsea have to win this competition'

Baltimore's penalty saved Chelsea from a first defeat in all competitions since April 2025

While critical of Chelsea's wastefulness in front of goal, former England midfielder Fara Williams praised their ability to come from behind and salvage a draw.

"The positive they can take is they come away with a point," Williams said. "The important thing is they put points on the board. They did that in coming back and showed they can stay in games and they are not easy to beat.

"It wasn't the three points they wanted but it certainly was a point that will be crucial come the end of the group stage."

Bompastor also alluded to her side's mentality, calling on her players to "take the learnings" from this performance and make sure they "mentally turn around" to focus on their next game - a home outing against Tottenham in the Women's Super League on Sunday.

Sanderson, however, did not sugarcoat what is at stake for Chelsea, nor the pressure on the shoulders of a team backed by huge investment - but without a European title.

"It's a non-negotiable that Chelsea win the Champions League this year," she said. "It won't be easy, but the amount of investment they've had, they have to win this competition."

Ben Haines, Ellen White and Jen Beattie are back for another season of the Women's Football Weekly podcast. New episodes drop every Tuesday on BBC Sounds, plus find interviews and extra content from the Women's Super League and beyond on the Women's Football Weekly feed