Chelsea could be forgiven for thinking it wasn't going to be their night on Tuesday. Injury, suspension and illness all left the Blues' bench looking light and lacking a goalkeeper, after Lionesses star Hannah Hampton had to pull out of Sonia Bompastor's starting XI in the warm-up. But once things got underway at Stamford Bridge, that luck started to even out as the hosts kicked off their Champions League campaign with a 3-2 win over Real Madrid.
There were just two minutes on the clock when Chelsea got a slice of fortune, the kind that had evaded them in the build-up to the game, as Sjoeke Nusken's header took a heavy deflection off Sheila Garcia and left her goalkeeper, Misa Rodriguez, with absolutely no chance. Before the half-hour mark, Guro Reiten coolly converted from the spot to double that lead and leave the visitors wondering what had hit them. They'd done little wrong and yet they were 2-0 down.
Alba Redondo was able to halve that deficit before the break, capitalising on some sloppy Chelsea defending, but the Blues re-established the two-goal cushion quickly after half time when Misa was beaten by another deflected header, this one from Mayra Ramirez. From there, it was all relatively comfortable until Real Madrid introduced Colombia sensation Linda Caicedo and she got another back for the visitors late on. But the hosts held on and were able to kickstart the group stage with a win.
GOAL rates Chelsea's players from Stamford Bridge...