Chelsea book WCL QF spot as Arsenal and Man Utd make playoffs that will be scheduled to take place in February.
Chelsea fight back to seal WCL quarter-final spot, Manchester United sink Juve.
Chelsea overcame a deficit to upset Wolfsburg and secure an automatic spot in the Women’s Champions League quarterfinals, avoiding the playoffs in February.
With her 20th Champions League goal, Sam Kerr headed home a cross from Johanna Rytting Kaneryd to win the match. Chelsea will now play in the round of eight in March after surviving a late scare when the German team hit the crossbar in the ninetieth minute.
After defeating Juventus to secure one of the best seeding spots for the playoffs, Manchester United, who were already assured of at least a playoff spot prior to kickoff, also had an incredible away night.
Marc Skinner’s team won in Turin thanks to a beautiful first-half goal from Jess Park into the top corner, moving them up to sixth place in their inaugural European campaign.
Chelsea’s evening started off disappointingly as the two-time former champions Wolfsburg took advantage of some careless defending from the English league winners to take an early lead through Alexandra Popp’s strong finish. All nine games in this final round of league phase fixtures began simultaneously on Wednesday.
However, Chelsea recovered, and before halftime, a resolute Lucy Bronze sprang highest to tie the score from a set piece. After halftime, Alyssa Thompson hit a post for the London team, and Kerr’s header sealed the victory.
“It’s never easy to come here so it’s a great result, especially because we wanted to qualify directly for the top four. We did that,” said the Chelsea manager, Sonia Bompastor.
“The performance was tough, especially in the first half. We were under pressure because Wolfsburg came at us with a lot of physicality. That made it difficult for us to perform. In the second half we did enough to score two goals and win the game.
“We need to stay focused until the end. Something that we need to improve on a little bit is game management,” Bompastor admitted. “When you are winning 2-1 and Wolfsburg are trying to put you under pressure, then you need to react differently to how we did.”