Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor admitted that she was more pleased with the result than the performance after her side defeated Manchester United 1-0 at Kingsmeadow on Sunday afternoon.
Guro Reiten’s first half penalty was enough to separate the two sides and continue Chelsea’s winning start to the season.
When speaking to the media after the match, Chelsea boss Bompastor spoke about the impact of the winning run both on her team and the opposition.
“In terms of confidence, I think it shows my players that we are a hard team to beat and I think it’s good,” Bompastor said. “Most importantly, I think it’s better to analyse the performances. I think having this last month, we had the opportunity to face Manchester City, Manchester United and Champions League games. We were able to not concede goals and I think it’s something that shows we are strong as a team.
“It’s really important because mentally, when teams are coming and facing us, they know they have to have the best performance to make sure they get the good results.”
Despite claiming three points against Manchester United, Bompastor stated that she wasn’t entirely happy with her side’s performance.
She said “I think in possession of the ball, I wanted us to play a little bit more, which we didn’t do, but the weather was not easy for both teams.
“Also, credit to Manchester United; they have a very defensive organisation and are very efficient in that. We were able to score the penalty, which is good, but we probably could have done a lot more with the possession of the ball.
“My learnings from the game today is, of course, we were expecting a tough game against Manchester United, who don’t concede a lot of goals in the league and they have good defensive organisation. It’s good in terms of result, but we didn’t play our best football.
“When you don’t score a second goal in this type of game, you just leave the door a little bit open for the opposition. I think this is what happened today, but we were able to get the clean sheet and a little bit of luck at the end when [Melvine] Malard hit the crossbar. We worked hard as a team to make sure we had the clean sheet and the three points.”
Bompastor went on to explain in more detail the areas of her side’s performance that she felt could have been better.
She said “In the build-up phases and creation phases, we were not patient enough. We were not able to keep the ball and I would like my team to be able to hold the ball more than we did today. We created a lot of chances again but were not clinical or efficient enough.
“Sometimes, we gave the ball away too much in this game. I don’t want to find excuses, but the wind was part of our performance. It’s the worst element in football to have this windy weather. It didn’t help, especially when you have a team who wants to create and have possession of the ball, but it was the same for both teams.”
Commenting on the progression of her Chelsea side, Bompastor said that The Blues can still be better when in possession of the ball.
“We still need to progress,” Bompastor said. “The good point is we are winning games and getting lots of points, but we can still make a lot of improvements, especially when we are in possession of the ball – being able to hold the ball under pressure. This is something we have been working on and we want to work really hard to make sure that we will be able to do a better job for the next games.”
Chelsea return to action following the international break when they play host to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday 8 December 2024.
