Chelsea beat Atletico 2-0 in the first leg of their Women's Champions League last-16 tie despite having Sophie Ingle sent off after just 12 minutes; Ann-Katrin Berger saved two penalties for Chelsea, whose goals came from Maren Mjelde and Fran Kirby
Thursday 4 March 2021 12:04, UK
Emma Hayes has hailed Chelsea's "wonderful" performance after they beat Atletico Madrid 2-0, despite playing with 10 players for nearly 80 minutes, on Wednesday night.
A Maren Mjelde penalty and a smart Fran Kirby finish in the second half gave Hayes' side a valuable lead in their Women's Champions League last-16 tie.
But the game began badly for Chelsea when Sophie Ingle gave away a penalty and was sent off after just 12 minutes.
However, Chelsea goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger saved the spot-kick, and then repeated the feat late in the second half after she gave away her side's second penalty.
The result makes Chelsea favourites to progress to the quarter-finals at the expense of Atletico, who are fourth in Spain's Primera Division, and Hayes was understandably delighted at her side's performance.
"I thought we were extremely calm under the pressure," she said. "I felt calm throughout the whole game, I didn't feel the stress and I don't think the players did.
"You guys might say it was dramatic but it didn't actually feel that way. I thought we were very controlled.
"It was a wonderful performance of doing the right things at the right time. Of course that's made easier by them not scoring from that penalty, because I think that gave us a lift.
"But you really have to credit my team's performance because that's not easy to do [play with 10] for 80-odd minutes, and still win the game."
Chelsea - who are top of the Women's Super League and travel to West Ham on Sunday - will play the second leg of their Champions League tie in Madrid three days later.
Manchester City joined Chelsea in winning the first leg of their Women's Champions League tie on Wednesday to make it a successful night for English sides in the competition.
Manager Gareth Taylor said in the build-up to their game with Fiorentina that he thought City were good enough to win the competition, and his side backed up his words with a dominant 3-0 victory.
City raced into an early lead against their Italian opponents, with Lauren Hemp and Ellen White scoring inside the opening four minutes.
Fiorentina, who were last season's Serie A runners-up, lost 6-0 on aggregate to Arsenal in the competition last year and looked on course for a similarly heavy defeat in Manchester, but they were able to limit City's advantage after their initial dominance.
The Viola are the last remaining Italian side in the tournament following Juventus' exit to last year's champions Lyon, but any hopes of progressing were further dented when Sam Mewis came off the bench to head home a third.
