Key events
37 min: Chelsea win yet another corner, which has not proved to be a great part of their game this evening, and Baltimore takes it once again. She sends it in but it is well handled by Lawton.
36 min: Are Chelsea going to be in for their third here? Not yet. Hamano sees it in but it’s easily cleared. They come again but Cuthbert’s effort is saved by Daugherty.
34 min: My word, I was writing about an almost chance for Celtic and then Chelsea score. Agnew almost beat Musovic but Chelsea worked it quickly, peppering the goal with chances until Lawrence turned it home.
GOAL! Celtic 1-2 Chelsea (Lawrence, 32)
Chelsea are ahead.
32 min: That will be frustrating for Celtic as they did have all the momentum. Chelsea are on the hunt for a second with a long ball from Lawrence into the box but no one is there to pick it up.
30 min: Beever-Jones works it into the box and finds Hamano, who is unmarked. Hamano immediately goes into the goal to retrieve the ball, showing Chelsea’s intent tonight.
GOAL! Celtic 1-1 Chelsea (Hamano, 28)
Chelsea respond.
28 min: The delivery is good but a foul on Musovic sees Chelseable to clear.
27 min: Chelsea have yet another corner and this time Baltimore is the taker. She sends it in but it’s headed clear. Celtic look to counter but Chelsea do well to thwart the attack but eventually Celtic get it into the box and they win a corner. Chelsea slightly shaken here.
25 min: Well who would have predicted this? Chelsea were so vulnerable on the counter and Celtic absolutely carved them open. Celtic manager Sadiku went crazy in celebration, what a moment for Agnew.
24 min: It all started with McGregor on the counter, she fed a lovely ball to Agnew and Musovic wasn’t set. Game on, the ground is bouncing.
GOAL! Celtic 1-0 Chelsea (Agnew, 22′)
HUGE!
22 min: Baltimore is playing some beautiful football out there tonight, she keeps getting it into the box from impossible positions but none of her teammates have turned it goalward yet. But the French international is a huge threat so far.
20 min: Celtic are a tricky team to breakdown and McGregor is making Chelsea’s life that much harder so far, she has been great for the hosts.
18 min: Daugherty is okay to continue, maybe a tactical break there but of course we will never know for sure.
17 min: Celtic only have a few passes before Chelsea win it back. Daugherty is down injured at the moment, she is receiving treatment.
16 min: Cuthbert wins a free kick from a foul by Ross. Hamano takes it short to Lawrence but she can’t even get it in the box before Celtic are all over it. Chelsea need to sort their set pieces out.
14 min: There is a lot of patient build-up play for Chelsea but their final moves on plays just aren’t coming together at the momet, thanks in part to some good Celtic defence.
12 min: Baltimore passes a beautiful ball ti Kaptein but McGregor puts in a well-timed tackle to send it out for a corner. Chelsea use the same set piece play and again it doesn’t work, the Blues need to rethink if they get another in this match, which seems likely.
10 min: Smith is okay to continue and so we resume with the corner. Hamano takes it short and Baltimore sends it in but it’s easily cleared.
9 min: Chelsea have another corner with McGregor putting it out of play but before the set piece is taken Smith needs some treatment, it looks to be a calf issue.
8 min: Kaptein wins the ball back in a good place and she fires a shot but Daugherty saves easily.
7 min: A lot of play in their own half from Celtic. they are finding it tricky to get out of their own half at the moment. Possession exchanging hands quite frequently also as both settle into this one.
5 min: The atmosphere in the Celtic Park is incredible. There must be at least 15,000in this evening.
4 min: Baltimore has a lovely ball inside and a few passes later it comes to Cuthbert but Lawton heads out for a corner. Hamano takes it short and Baltimore sees it in but Bjorn heads over the bar.
2 min: Chelsea have had all the possession so far but Celtic’s defence is aggressive with high press at the moment.
Kick-off! Celtic 0-0 Chelsea
Here we go then. Some huddles delaying kick-off slightly but we are underway now.
There looks to be a good crowd at Celtic Park with a light show to boot before kick-off.
The players will be out on the pitch shortly. Can Chelsea keep their unbeaten run going? Or will Celtic cause an upset? All to come.
The two earlier kick-offs today have finished up and it has seen Real Madrid beat FC Twente, the two teams in Chelsea and Celtic’s group, 7-0 including two goals from Maria Mendez. While Wolfsburg have beaten Galatasaray 5-0 which saw Rebecka Blomqvist score a hat-trick.
The I’m a Celeb line-up has been announced for this year’s competition and it got me thinking about who would be a good fit from women’s football. Of course Jill Scott won in 2022 but I’d love to know who else you think would do a good job. I think Erin Cuthbert would be a good shout. Email me to get in touch and let me know.
Here are how the other two British clubs in the competition got on yesterday:
Celtic boss Elena Sadiku said: “This experience has taught us that this is just a normal game. The occasion is huge, but we still need to do what we can do which is playing football the way we play. We knew it would be tough, but we are going to learn, we are going to grow and we are going to get stronger as a team from playing here.”
Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has said of tonight’s opposition: “We are focusing on ourselves. We have a lot of quality, but of course, we expect them to come and be really motivated and try to make it hard for us.”
The team news is in. Celtic have named a strong side with a fully loaded bench including the Carstens sisters.
Celtic: Daugherty, Barclais, N Ross, Gallacher, Smith, Agnew, McGregor, Clark, Ashford-Clifford, Lawton, Bruna Costa.
Subs: Logan, Rodgers, Richardson, S Carstens, M Carstens, Cavanagh, Cross, Hayes, Noonan, Munoz, McAney
Chelsea, meanwhile, opt for some squad rotations with Zecira Musovic in goal and ERin Cuthbert is captain with Millie Bright not in the squad.
Chelsea: Musovic, Perisset, Bjorn,Mpome, Lawrence, Cuthbert, Kaptein. Jean-Francios, Baltimore, Hamano, Beever-Jones.
Subs: Hampton, Cox, Bronze, Bartel, Reiten, Kaneryd, Macario
Preamble
Hello and welcome back to our coverage of the Women’s Champions League where tonight we will be focusing on Celtic v Chelsea.
Chelsea travel to Scotland as an unbeaten side across all competitions so far this season. They have won every single match they have played under new manager Sonia Bompastor and it will be difficult for Celtic to be the ones to halt their winning run.
Celtic, who are currently fourth in the Scottish Premiership, have not won a game in the WCL yet and sit at the bottom of the group table with no points. A win over Chelsea, though unlikely, would resuscitate their campaign.
We will take a look at what has been said in the build-up to the game shortly but first let’s take a peek at the team news before kick-off at 8pm GMT.
