Chelsea Women’s physicality proved to be too much for Real Madrid Femenino, who lost 3-2 at Stamford Bridge in their first group game of the UEFA Women’s Champions League on Tuesday.

Goals from Alba Redondo and Linda Caicedo were not enough to put Chelsea away. The home team, on the other hand, saw first-half goals from Sjoeke Nusken, Guro Reiten and were added to by Mayra Ramirez in the second half.

Real Madrid started off in the worst way possible when they conceded a goal in the second minute. It looked like it was a Shiela Garcia own goal, but was, in the end, given to Nusken. Las Blancas tried to react positively right after the first half, putting some pressure on Chelsea and taking the game to them. Chelsea, however, were winning most of the duels, and for a while, they looked like they were stronger, faster, and better than Real Madrid, even though the latter are supposedly more “match fit” than the home side.

Real Madrid left a lot of space between the defenders, which was well exploited by Chelsea. The physicality of these Chelsea players was causing a lot of problem.

Las Blancas took their time to get into the game, and just as they seemed like they were getting the hang of it, Maria Mendez, in what looked like a 50-50 situation at first, gave away a penalty, which was slotted into the bottom left corner by Guro Reiten.

Real Madrid, at the time, were the worse team, but not enough to be down by two goals. The alarm bells started ringing, and they turned up the pressure after conceding the goal. A scramble in the box resulted in a good chance for Alba Redondo, who forced a good save out of Hannnah Hempton in the 31st minute.

The breakthrough came for Real Madrid as a result of the pressure that they had kept on Chelsea for a large stretch of the first half, when Alba Redondo slotted the ball into the net from inside the box to halve Chelsea’s lead.

Both teams exchanged spells of possession since, and Real Madrid seemed a lot better than how they had started the game, which is why the half-time break came at the worst possible time for them. Just as we saw them finally enjoy some good spells of possession.

Caroline Weir — Real Madrid’s most dangerous player, on paper — failed to have a significant impact on the game in the first half. She was deployed as a false nine, but struggled to get involved. She did have one chance — producing a neat dribble and then taking a tame, right-footed shot straight at Hampton. But apart from that, she had little going her way.

Real Madrid started the second half as they did the first — conceding a goal from a cross. This is the part of the game where they really started to struggle with Chelsea’s physicality, as the home side kept winning duels — even in Real Madrid’s box — and just seemed like the side who wanted the win more than their opponents. Lauren James put in a brilliant cross, meeting Ramirez at the end of it to score a third for Chelsea.

Toril made a change right after conceding the third goal, replacing Teresa for Linda Caicedo — putting Weir back in her preferred position.

Caicedo brought some much-needed energy, using her pace to get past multiple players, and created a couple of chances all because of her brilliance on the ball.

Real Madrid were still missing something, and Toril — stagnant in his dugout — couldn’t figure out what. Real Madrid needed someone with strength to bully, or at least match, Chelsea players who kept going at Las Blancas without fail.

That being said, it is a debate worth having about what could’ve happened had Caicedo started the game. She was the biggest threat Real Madrid had to offer, and seemed like the only player who wasn’t fazed by the physicality of the team opposite.

Caicedo got her goal after all her hard work on the left wing — it came from another scramble which somehow ended up in the back of the net — and suddenly, Real Madrid looked very much like the team we know. The pressure was on Chelsea, with Caicedo being at the heart of everything.

Even though it wasn’t a victory like Las Blancas would’ve wanted, their will to never give up and the grit they showed towards the end of the game against one of the very best teams in the sport, gave them plenty to write home about.

More analysis to follow.