Brighton Women 2 – 2 Chelsea Women

Chelsea Women battled to a 2-2 draw against Brighton Women in the WSL, in which Lauren James’ equaliser looked to be offside.

The England international levelled for Chelsea in the 61st minute, with Brighton having gone into the break 2-1 ahead.

She appeared to be offside as Mayra Ramirez’s shot was well-saved by goalkeeper Melina Loeck, but it was not spotted by the officials. James slotted home the rebound, and with no VAR the goal stood.

It sparked a better second-half showing from Chelsea, who were dominated by Brighton – who are unbeaten at home in the WSL this season – in the opening 45 minutes.

But the Blues did take the early lead with their first shot. James showed some quick feet to send in her cross, with Johanna Rytting Kaneyrd’s skewed header finding Baltimore just behind. She then rifled home a fine effort.

Chelsea’s lead lasted just six minutes, though, as Brighton deservedly levelled. It was a brilliant finish from Marisa Olislagers, who was found down the left channel by Nikita Parris. She sent a shot through the six-yard box which ended up curling into the top corner.

Brighton kept pressing for another goal and were rewarded in the 42nd minute. They took a quick throw-in, which caught the Blues off-guard. The ball found its way to Vicky Losada in the middle, and she neatly side-footed the ball past Hannah Hampton.

The second half was peppered with injuries. Naomi Girma – making her Chelsea debut after her world-record transfer in January – was taken off with a possible recurrence of her calf injury. Brighton also had to bring off Losada and Fran Kirby with the knocks, the latter playing against her former club for the first time.

The result marked just the second time this season that Chelsea have dropped points, but they still maintain a five-point lead at the top of the WSL. Brighton remain in fifth place, and move onto 19 points.

‘Chelsea lucky with James goal’

Izzy Christensen on Sky Sports:

“It’s lucky for Chelsea because they’ve salvaged a point. That decision, in another game, might have been given as offside.

“Brighton were holding on in the last 15 or 20 minutes but I don’t think they’ll be happy with that [James’ goal] one bit.

“But in the grand scheme of things, the performance for Brighton at present is the most important thing. Of course the result matters, but the manager will be really pleased with his team’s game.”

Bompastor: We are Chelsea – we must do better than we did today

Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor to Sky Sports:

“It’s frustrating in terms of results. We need to start the game with the same intention that we had in the second half.

“We had some troubles in the first half because our intentions were not good enough. This league is really competitive, Brighton made a good start in the game.

“We need to be efficient. The main goal in football is to score goals and we scored the first one but, after, we didn’t have the right mindset to score more.

“It’s always difficult after an international break. You need to put all the players on the same page, some players travel all around the world so it’s never easy to prepare for the game.

“But we are Chelsea and with the quality of the players, we need to do better than we did today.

“We dropped two points and we still need to keep the head up. We have a quick turnaround and play again on Wednesday so we need to be prepared for that.”

How did Girma do on her Chelsea debut?

Analysis from Sky Sports’ Charlotte Marsh:

Chelsea fans had been waiting a fair few weeks for their first glimpse of Girma in the famous blue shirt. She arrived at the club nursing a calf injury – and that proved to be her issue on Sunday too.

It was a sad sight to watch the world’s most expensive women’s player hobble off, but it had been far from the dream debut for the defender.

While she did not do anything specifically wrong, she was certainly given the runaround by fellow American Madison Haley. The Brighton forward made Girma look average – which she most certainly is not.

It was a chastening welcome into WSL life and the USA international may be starting to realise how tough the league is. While Brighton have been having a good season, this is a game Chelsea would expect to win.

But everyone needs time to adapt, even as one of the best players in the world. Not a debut to forget, but not one to write home about either.

When asked about Girma by Sky Sports, Bompastor said: “We need to assess her tomorrow [Monday] and maybe do some scans to see what happened in the calf.

“It’s her first game, which is never easy. She needs to find the chemistry with the players and to find the rhythm. She also doesn’t know the league so it’s a lot and, for her debut, it was good for her to get these minutes and I hope she can play soon again.”

Vidosic: We can and will be better

Brighton head coach Dario Vidosic to the club’s official media:

“ We put in a lot of effort, intensity and had a good belief in how we play. We took a lot of confidence the first time we matched up [earlier this season].

“Especially in the first half, we were really, really good. We created lots of chances – we were probably a little bit unlucky to not go 3-1 up. We had a couple of chances early in the second half… which was really pleasing.

“We had to dig deep towards the end and there was a lot of tired legs out there. We had girls coming back from injury who were building up their fitness, so we knew it was going to be a tough one.

“I am really pleased with the performance. I know we can be better and we will be better, but I think it’s also that mental side where we’re 2-1 up against the reigning champions, undefeated, they haven’t lost. So it’s just, how do we continue doing what we were doing in the first half? But that’s all part of it. We’ll gain a lot from this game.”

Story of the match in stats

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