‘A point gained’ – Hayes unhappy with poor Chelsea performance but draw is further progress | OneFootball

Chelsea manager Emma Hayes wasn’t happy with her side’s performance against Real Madrid last night but The Blues boss is more content with where the club find themselves in their UEFA Women’s Champions League group.

The Blues drew 1-1 with Real Madrid at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano. Hayes’ side were sloppy in possession while they gifted their opponents the opening goal in the first half.

Reflecting on the game, Hayes labelled Chelsea’s performance as bad as she has seen, although the second half was an improvement on the first.

“I was really disappointed with our performance in the first half,” Hayes said when speaking in the post-match press conference. “It is the first time in a while that we have conceded such a poor goal but the team performance was as bad as I’ve seen from us by our standards in and out of possession, I thought we were asleep.

“I was forced to make two changes and if I’m honest, anybody could have come off. When changes are made, everybody looks at individuals but the reality was that at 1-0 down, I wasn’t going to wait and the team knew that.

“I thought it was a great response from the team in the second half and we could have won it in the end. It’s a point gained but a disappointing performance by our standards.”

Despite last night’s draw, Chelsea remain top of their group and can qualify for the UEFA Women’s Champions League’s quarter-finals with a game to spare. Hayes had no complaints with the larger picture in terms of the outlook of Group A.

She said “It’s brilliant, it’s a great place to be in. I always knew that this would be a difficult place to come and the size of the pitch made it difficult. I don’t think you are going to sail through the group winning every game because the quality of the opponents means that it is going to be difficult.

“To be top of the group at this stage, to have it within our hands going into the next one, it’s the place where we want to be.”

Chelsea return to action again on Sunday evening when they host Reading at Kingsmeadow in the Barclays Women’s Super League.