Chelsea Ladies captain Katie Chapman: Stamford Bridge debut in Champions League shows 'unbelievable' progress

Getty Images
Simon Johnson5 October 2016

Chelsea Ladies will play at Stamford Bridge for the first time in their history tonight, and midfielder Katie Chapman believes it will help them win their Champions League tie against Wolfsburg.

After failing to defend the English title they won in 2015, with Manchester City securing top spot after a 2-0 win against the Blues last month, Chapman is looking for redemption in Europe.

Eleven months ago they were knocked out by Wolfsburg, who went on to reach the final, in the last 16.

But as they prepare to face the German side again in the first leg in the opening round of this season’s competition, veteran midfielder Chapman said: “I think it’s unbelievable to be playing at Stamford Bridge.

“It shows the progression Chelsea women have made within the club and the support we have behind us.

“For us to play there, the home of Chelsea, is going to be a great occasion and to have home support, a big crowd, will be nice.

“We obviously didn’t play well enough against Manchester City and lost our title. We are gutted about that, but we will bounce back now and the Champions League is the next step.”

Wolfsburg beat Chelsea 4-1 on aggregate last year and have won the competition twice.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in