Millie Bright warns against underestimating Champions League opponents

Chelsea captain Millie Bright has made it clear that no team in the UEFA Women's Champions League should be underestimated.

The 2024/25 group stage begins this week and the Blues are getting ready to take on Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge in an effort to better their semi-final efforts from last season.

Speaking ahead of the game, Bright reinforced that the fixture is "absolutely not" the decider in their group, which will also see Chelsea come up against Celtic and FC Twente later on.

"There's no team in this competition that should be underestimated," she said. "It's an honour to be back in this campaign playing with Chelsea and we don't take any opponent lightly."

Chelsea have played Real Madrid in the group stage in each of the last two seasons, resulting in two draws and two wins in the club's favour, ultimately remaining unbeaten against the Spanish side.

Bright described Madrid as "one of the best teams in Spain" and considers the clash this week very much "two top teams coming up against each other".

"We've come up against them a lot of times," she explained. "They are a very attacking team and they love to possess the ball. Every time we've played against them, they've fought until the end and we are expecting nothing less this time around. It'll all come down to who takes the chances and is the best prepared on the night."

New Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor is the only woman to have won the Champions League as both a player and a manager. She captained Lyon to back-to-back victories in 2011 and 2012, before guiding the club to European glory as head coach in 2021.

"I've had different experiences as a player and manager," Bompastor said. "I'm really excited to be in the dugout for Chelsea. I can't wait to enjoy the game and be out there with the players."

Bright acknowledged the benefit of having Bompastor and players like Lucy Bronze now on board in Chelsea's fight to secure their first Champions League victory.

"It's massive," she said. "I think everyone knows that Chelsea's winning mentality is something that's been embedded in us for several years now. Having people come in that can add to that mentality will help us get it over the line which we are yet to do."

Chelsea were supposed to play Manchester United in the WSL on Sunday afternoon until the planned game, a little over 48 hours before the Madrid fixture, was postponed at just a week's notice. The subsequent controversy focused on the last minute nature of the decision from WPLL and the inconvenience for fans rather than the underlying motivation of protecting player welfare.

By comparison, Madrid played their scheduled weekend fixture on Friday night to maximise recovery before Tuesday. The gaffe has already been branded as "simply unacceptable" by Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall, who called for better communication and called the process "amateurish".

Bompastor added that "all the decisions in this league through the season have to be made in order to help the English clubs compete in the Champions League".

Speaking about the impact of having more rest ahead of the game, she said: "The decision was good as we've now had ten days since we last played which has changed everything."

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