Chelsea fell to a narrow defeat at Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Women’s Champions League semi-final.
The hosts took an early lead when Sydney Lohmann headed the ball in after Blues goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger flapped at a cross from the right.
Chelsea equalised in freakish fashion when an attempted headed clearance hit Melanie Leupolz and looped in.
Hanna Glas restored Bayern’s lead when she drifted inside and fired in a great left-footed strike from 18 yards.
The Blues host the German side in the return leg next Sunday at 12:30 BST.
Despite losing out on the day Chelsea boss Emma Hayes will have been encouraged by her side’s efforts, not to mention the away goal they take back to Kingsmeadow.
It could have been even better for the Blues had Ji So-yun’s 20-yard effort dropped the right side of the line after hitting the underside of the crossbar with just over 10 minutes to go.
Hayes will, however, have been unhappy with the nature of Bayern’s first goal. Two Chelsea players stood off and allowed Glas to send in a cross from the right that Berger could only tip on to the head of Lohmann after 12 minutes.
The Women’s Super League leaders responded well to falling behind, even if their equaliser owed more to luck than judgement.
Fran Kirby swung in a free-kick from the left and an attempted clearance struck former Bayern captain Leupolz on the head and dropped into the net despite some desperate attempts to hook it away.
Pernille Harder perhaps should have given the Blues the lead but she failed to make a solid connection from just a yard or so out when Sam Kerr had headed back across goal shortly after the break.
Glas gave the home side the lead for the second time when she was allowed to progress unchecked at the Chelsea defence and then struck a sweet left-footed effort that flew past Berger.
The final 10 minutes fizzled out somewhat, with Bayern content with what they had and the visitors wary about pushing too many players forward to score an equaliser.
