Chelsea 2-1 Spurs (WSL) | Robert’s verdict: “I’m proud of the girls”
Sun 01 October 2023, 23:10|
Tottenham Hotspur
Robert Vilahamn was keen to look beyond the final score after a brave display from our players in Sunday’s Women’s Super League curtain-raiser at Chelsea.
Goals from Mia Fishel and Lauren James saw the reigning champions take the upper hand at Stamford Bridge, but we simply wouldn’t go away and our impressive football was rewarded with a goal from debutant Martha Thomas 14 minutes from time.
Substitute Jess Naz went close to an equaliser while the hosts also had a couple of chances to extend their lead in the latter stages, Jelena Cankovic seeing an effort ruled out for offside, but there was to be no further addition to the scoreline as the Blues triumphed 2-1.
Reflecting on the performance in his first game in charge, Robert told SPURSPLAY that he was pleased with what he saw from the players.
“I’m proud of the girls – I think they actually tried to play with the bravery we wanted to, we tried to dictate the game, we tried to press them, we played against a really good team of course and we still managed to play against them for 97 minutes and almost have a draw,” he said. “Of course, you never want to lose these games and that’s not a good feeling but the feeling that we take steps with this team is really nice and I’m really proud of how they played and how they performed today.
You never want to lose these games and that’s not a good feeling but the feeling that we take steps with this team is really nice.
“I hope the fans really enjoyed how we played because in a few facets of the game we were actually really good in the build-up and how we penetrated with passes and how we created good chances, so I really hope that the fans saw that, that we’re actually getting somewhere. We still have a long journey to go because we want to dominate even more, we want to win these games as well and we want to score more goals, of course, but it’s a big step after these first eight weeks, I would say.”
Martha’s goal got us right back into the contest and you sensed at that stage that we could find an equaliser. Indeed, Chelsea faced the most shots on their goal in a WSL game in a decade.
“I actually felt that,” added Robert. “We had the momentum there, Jess had a really good chance for example when we really pushed them back, so I think we could have done it but then of course they had a few really good chances as well, but I think we went for it.”
