Chelsea vs Manchester City Women's Champions League preview: Where to watch, possible starting line-ups

Chelsea and Manchester City meet in the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final second leg on Thursday 27 March at Stamford Bridge.

What do you need to know?

Chelsea, who have got through all five of their previous Champions League quarter-finals, must overturn a 2-0 deficit in their home leg to keep up that record, with Manchester City coming to Stamford Bridge after Vivianne Miedema came off the bench to score twice and end Sonia Bompastor's 28-game unbeaten start as Blues coach. It was only City's second fixture under their interim boss Nick Cushing, who returned earlier this month having previously managed the club from 2013 to 2020, leading them to both their previous Champions League semi-finals in 2016/17 and 2017/18.

Cushing's comeback had been four days earlier when City lost 2-1 to Chelsea in the English League Cup final. They met again on Sunday in the Women's Super League, Chelsea coming from behind to win 2-1 with a late Erin Cuthbert goal to stay eight points clear at the top, with City seven off the top three.

Still, City's first-leg win was even more impressive in the absence of the injured Khadija Shaw, Aoba Fujino, Rebecca Knaak, Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood, and both Laura Blindkilde Brown and goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita have now joined that list, with Laia Aleixandri and Yui Hasegawa also coming off early on Sunday (though that pair trained on Wednesday). Chelsea (missing long-term absentees Sam Kerr, Kadeisha Buchanan and Sophie Ingle as well as Naomi Girma and Guro Reiten) might note that in the group stage, City opened by beating Barcelona 2-0, then on Matchday 6 lost the away return 3-0 to end up second on head-to-head record. Bompastor, when she won this trophy as Lyon coach in 2021/22, also had to overturn a first-leg deficit in the quarter-finals, losing 2-1 at Juventus before a 3-1 home win.

Form guide

Chelsea
Last six games: WLWWWW
Last match: Man City 1-2 Chelsea, 23/03, league
Where they stand: 1st in Women's Super League, Women's FA Cup semi-finals, Women's League Cup winners

Man City
Last six games: LWLWWW
Last match: Man City 1-2 Chelsea, 23/03, league
Where they stand: 4th in Women's Super League, Women's FA Cup semi-finals, Women's League Cup runners-up

Starting line-ups

Chelsea: Hampton; Bronze, Björn, Bright, Baltimore; Walsh, Cuthbert; Rytting Kaneryd, Kaptein, James; Ramírez

Man City: Keating; Casparij, Prior, Aleixandri, Ouahabi; Roord, Hasegawa, Miedema; Kerolin, Fowler, Murphy

View from the camps

Sonia Bompastor, Chelsea coach: "Man City have a lot of quality, and being able to beat them in a final and in the league is a good result against a really tough team. We know what we have to do: they won the first leg by two goals. We are in that situation but we are confident we can turn things around.

"It is always more difficult when you are losing by two goals, but we are confident. We are at home. It will be tough and difficult, but this is what this club is about. I just want my players at the end of the game to have no regrets."

Millie Bright, Chelsea captain: "It is a situation where you have to remain calm. If you look across our last performances, there are a lot of positives to take, especially the last game, winning the game, the second-half performance. Yes, we are not in the position we would like to be in, but we are in it. We are very confident in ourselves and it is not an impossible turnaround.

"We have an opportunity to bounce back and show the qualities and mentality we have as a team [...] We have got a lot of experience in our squad, a lot of leaders. It's important to remain in this situation; there is a minimum of 90 minutes to play and that's plenty of time."

Nick Cushing, Man City interim coach: "[When starting as interim coach] I looked in the players' eyes and I still saw belief and a real ambition to win trophies in this group. They're still training incredibly hard. I see the belief. I believe we can score in the game. I believe we have a really special group here.

"Obviously, you could see after the game on Sunday the sort of squad and strain we had on it, but the medical team are doing an incredible job. The likes of Aoba [Fujino] and Bunny [Shaw] won't make the game. It wasn't ideal to take off some key players [on Sunday], but we've worked hard to make sure the squad are competitive for the game."

Kerstin Casparij, Man City defender: "I am really looking forward to it. It's an incredible game and the Champions League is always special, and having the opportunity to progress in the tournament is always exciting [...] How I approach it is we start at 0-0. We go out to attack the game and not defend the 2-0.

"Regardless of how we would have done before this game, it is important for the club to get as far in the Champions League as we can. We believed we could get really far in this competition and we've shown that all season. Hopefully, we can continue this journey."

Where is the 2025 UEFA Women's Champions League final being played?

Getty Images

Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon will stage the 2025 UEFA Women's Champions League final on Saturday 24 May.

The home of Sporting CP opened in 2003 ahead of UEFA EURO 2004 in Portugal, replacing another stadium of the same name. It hosted a semi-final of that tournament, among other games, and was the venue for the UEFA Cup decider the following year.

The 2025 final will be the second Women's Champions League showpiece to be held in Lisbon after 2014, when Estádio do Restelo staged Wolfsburg's 4-3 win against Tyresö.