Chelsea defender Lucy Bronze claimed that her side was “Miles Off It” during the 2-0 defeat against Manchester City in the quarterfinals of the Women's Champions League first stage, but insisted that the situation could be remedied.
Replacement Vivianne Miedema climbed from the bank to score twice and Fire City in an impressive position in the draw, so Sonia Bompastor handed her first defeat as Chelsea boss, four days after lifting the competition cup.
The blues are confronted with a tough fight in the second stage to secure an elusive First Champions League title, although Bronze is convinced that they can do it when the two parties meet again on Stamford Bridge on March 27.
“I don't think we were good enough,” Bronze told TNT Sports. “I don't think we had enough trouble in our press. We were sloppy in our death.
“City was better organized. We were miles of our game. Sonia said that during the break. It improved a bit in the second half, but that is clear when they came in and got their goals.
“Although we are two goals, we are confident that we can turn this around.
“It will be the biggest game of the season so far. It's all still to play for. We know we can score goals. We have goals all over the field.”
Although it is the first defeat since he was in charge of the club, Bompastor took full responsibility for the result, but was also quickly the confidence of Bronze about the following meetings with City in the Women's Super League on Sunday and four days later.
When asked about her emotions after the game, Bompastor said: “A lot of frustration. For me it's about analyzing now. I take every responsibility for the performance and the result. I am hard for myself, but people expect the manager to turn things around.
“I think it is a difficult night today and sometimes it happens in football. It's ok for everyone to be disappointed, but from tomorrow we have to analyze the performance.
“It is difficult tonight, but it is my job to ensure that we have a positive mindset from tomorrow. What you can control is in the future. We only lost one game in the season, it was important, but it happens.
“I will be sure that I will go into the second stage. We have a lot of quality in the team and the freshness will be important. We have depth in the team.”
City has already imposed the blueprint on how teams can react to disappointment after Match winner Miedema admitted how “disappointed” the team of Nick Cushing was after being in the final against Chelsea in Pride Park last weekend.
City asked questions about their opponents everywhere, with 17 attempts on goal in the game, but suffered a 2-1 defeat after Yui Hasegawa's own goal sealed the victory for the competition leaders.
“This should be our standard,” said Miedema. “We were really disappointed after Saturday [the League Cup final].
“Today was special, and hopefully we can do the same performance next week.
“We have missed a lot of players and I am really happy that we have received this result because it gives us confidence and hopefully we can take it with you next week and the game.”
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