Chelsea boss Emma Hayes believes her side need to use their Women’s Champions League experience to get a result in their Group D clash at BK Hacken.
The Blues will go to the top of the group if they can beat the Swedish team on Wednesday night.
They were held to a goalless draw by the same opposition at Stamford Bridge last week but will have to face a lively atmosphere in the reverse fixture.
“Every game is a must-win game for us,” Hayes said on the club’s official website. “That is our mentality. We were disappointed with our performance last week. We worked on that, trained really well, played well at the weekend. This place will be rocking tomorrow night. This is going to be a difficult place to play.
Business trip: Hacken (A).
— Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW)
“We are playing an opponent who are very confident in what they’re doing. They’ve had an amazing year, especially in the Champions League, and we have to deal with all of those challenges. But we have to be ready to perform.
“We’re experienced in Europe. We understand it’s a different surface, a little bit colder than London, a different type of opponent.
“I think it’ll be a much different game than Stamford Bridge, particularly because of the crowd. We have experience and it’s important for us to use it.
“The message I’ll give to the players is we have been in this competition long enough, we’ve gone deep in this competition and while it hasn’t been perfect in the group stages, we have a dressing room that is capable of winning.”
Chelsea do have some injury problems for the game in Scandinavia.
“Melanie (Leupolz) hasn’t recovered, she’s had a setback,” explained the Chelsea manager. “She tried to come in on Monday, but she is not well.
“Maren (Mjelde) has made it back with the squad so she is part of that. Kadeisha (Buchanan) had an issue with a back spasm at the weekend and she’s back in the squad.
“Jelena (Cankovic) is still out with her calf and obviously, the long-term one is Catarina (Macario). Ann-Katrin (Berger) is back; she had a slight ankle knock.”
