Spot-on Chelsea win group after Macario’s double sees off Real Madrid
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For much of a cold night Chelsea were under pressure, taken to the line by Real Madrid, but ten minutes of Catarina Macario was enough to maintain their unbeaten record and take them through as winners of Group B. Six meetings later and still this is a fixture the Spanish club can’t win but they may never have been closer. Leading thanks to a goal from the immensely impressive Caroline Weir, they were eventually defeated by the American – who came on at half-time and belted in two penalties.
![[Catarina Macario scores Chelsea’s second goal against Real Madrid.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f7586e35b7584e42c202fba8e5b850c98585471c/0_146_5500_3300/master/5500.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
In the end that was enough, Madrid pushing to the last but unable to find a way through that they might have felt they deserved after an early goal that came as a statement of intent in the opening period where Chelsea never managed to get control, Erin Cuthbert often a lone figure surrounded by white. Madrid kept possession, letting their opponents see the ball but not touch it, and although it was worked all the way back to their goalkeeper, Misa Rodríguez, it was not a move to nowhere. Instead, it served as the starting point for a sequence of twelve more passes that ended with it in the net at the other end.
Chelsea had been drawn in a long way, turned, and exposed, Madrid finding space opening before them. Olga Carmona bounced off Lucy Bronze as they competed for the one slightly loose pass of the move and found Linda Caicedo, who gave it to Weir. The Scot’s high shot was reached by Hannah Hampton’s hand – but her swipe at it succeeded only in sending it looping in off the post.
