Pina's double leaves Chelsea on brink of exit

Sonia Bompastor accepted that her Chelsea team had been simply "not good enough" after they were taught a lesson by a technically superior Barcelona side who now hold a commanding position in their Women's Champions League semi-final.

- Tom Garry

Chelsea were beaten for only the second time in all competitions since Bompastor took over last summer but in sunny Catalonia they were out-classed by the strongest team they have faced in her tenure so far.

"Barcelona is maybe the best team in Europe," Bompastor said. "I think when the result was 2-1 we were not in a bad situation, but the last 10 minutes were not good enough. We made too many mistakes to have a better result. The version we showed tonight was not good enough."

"When you play Barcelona, you just need to be brave on the ball, being able to hold the ball under pressure, and being able in the physical aspects to win your duels, and just sometimes in your football brain to be smarter, to anticipate things. I think we played with too many reactions, instead of being proactive in the game."

Chelsea are trying to reach the European final for only the second time and could still win a quadruple of major trophies this term in Bompastor's first season in charge, but they will need an unlikely looking comeback and the performance of their lives to have any chance of over-turning this deficit in London.

The scoreline could have been worse for Chelsea but for Hannah Hampton's early penalty save, at a time when the tie was level at 0-0, when the former Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas was denied from the spot. That kept the home side at bay but not for long, with Putellas classily slipping a through ball into the path of Ewa Pajor for the Poland striker to open the scoring.

Chelsea improved defensively after the break but were undone as Barcelona made it 2-0 with a move that involved 18 passes before Claudia Pina turned in from inside the six-yard box. Pina herself had played the 13th pass of Barcelona's flowing move from deep inside her own half before sprinting upfield to turn home the cross.