Bompastor looking at ´bigger picture´ following first Chelsea defeat

Sonia Bompastor is focused on the big picture after tasting defeat for the first time as Chelsea head coach, ahead of Sunday’s rematch against Manchester City.

Chelsea and City are two games into a run of four straight meetings, the first time two top-flight sides have faced off that many times in a single calendar month in the Women’s Super League era.

While the Blues struck first, triumphing in the League Cup final last weekend, City hit back with a 2-0 victory in the first leg of the teams’ Champions League quarter-final tie.

That result prevented Chelsea from setting a new record for the longest unbeaten run across all competitions by a WSL team.

They had gone unbeaten in 31 games, starting with an 8-1 rout of Bristol City last May, winning 29 times and drawing twice. That streak matched their own record set between April 2019 and September 2020 (25 wins, six draws).

Bompastor’s Blues are still unbeaten through 16 games in the WSL this campaign, though, and the former Lyon coach is relishing the chance to see her players respond to the setback.

“It’s our job to bounce back, even if it’s difficult,” Bompastor said. “It hadn’t happened yet this season, but in previous seasons, the players experienced that with the club and with their national teams.

“My players have a lot of experience and, in your career, you will have the experience of losing games. For me, it’s important to analyse the performance and, as a team, bounce back and stay positive.

“It’s important for me to stay with the facts: we lost an important game, but we are still alive.

“In this situation, we still have one leg to play; we are not dead in the Champions League, so there is still hope for that reason.

“When you look at the bigger picture, we are top of the table in the league, have won one trophy, and are into the semi-finals of the FA Cup. So, all these elements bring us some confidence.”

Bompastor has the best win rate of any manager in WSL history, winning 14 of her 16 games in the dugout in the competition (two draws – 88%).

However, no manager has more wins in the WSL against Chelsea than Nick Cushing (five – level with David Parker), who returned to City after they sacked Gareth Taylor last week.