This is our opponent: a profile of Chelsea

Austria Wien kick off their UEFA Women’s Champions League league phase campaign on Wednesday 23 September at 9.00 pm (8.00 pm local time) against Chelsea Football Club. The match will be broadcast live on Disney+ and on ORF. Read on to find out what you need to know about the Blues.

When talking about English football, there’s no getting round Chelsea. The Blues from London – or, to be more precise, from the borough of Fulham – are among the biggest names in international football. Not just in the men’s game, but for several years now in the women’s game too. It all began in 1992, when long-time Chelsea fan Tony Farmer suggested to his beloved club that they should also commit to women’s football – and Chelsea agreed. Farmer became manager and put together the first team, which at the time was still playing in the lowest leagues of Greater London and slowly worked its way up.

From founding member to serial WSL champions

In the summer of 2004, the women’s team was officially integrated into Chelsea Football Club as Chelsea Ladies. This proved so beneficial that, as early as the 2004/05 season, they secured promotion to the Premier League National Division – the top flight from which Chelsea had not been absent since. In 2011, Chelsea co-founded what is now the Women’s Super League and hosted the very first WSL match ever on 13 April of that year. They suffered a 0–1 defeat in the derby against Arsenal.

After finishing second in the league in 2014 – which was still run as a year-round championship at the time – they went on to win the domestic double in 2015, securing both the WSL title and the FA Cup. In 2017/18, the first season following the format change, the Blues repeated this feat and, at the same time, reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the first time. In May 2018, the club was renamed Chelsea Football Club Women, which remains its official name to this day.

From 2019/20 to 2024/25, Chelsea won the league title six times in a row, secured the double four times and even achieved the treble – comprising the league title, the FA Cup and the League Cup – on two occasions. In the most recent 2025/26 season, the Blues had to settle for ‘just’ third place, but successfully defended their League Cup title.

A regular in the Champions League

Chelsea have reached at least the quarter-finals in seven of their last eight Champions League campaigns and reached the final in Gothenburg in 2020/21, where they lost 0–4 to FC Barcelona. After finishing third in the league, manager Sonia Bompastor’s side had to go through the qualifying rounds this year, but Real Sociedad proved no obstacle and were comfortably beaten 5–2 at home and 1–0 away. Chelsea have thus qualified for the group stage – or league phase – of the UWCL for the sixth time in a row; only Barcelona, Bayern, Lyon and Real Madrid have also featured in every edition since the switch to this format.

Two standout facts: The Blues have been unbeaten in group stages or league phases since their 0–4 defeat in Wolfsburg in December 2021 – a run of 24 matches (19 wins, 5 draws) – and have yet to suffer a single defeat in 15 home matches (11 wins, 4 draws).

Cuthbert the veteran, Thompson the rising star

Erin Cuthbert, who was appointed captain this season and has been playing for Chelsea since 2016, has witnessed it all. The midfielder has made over 300 appearances for the Blues and has been part of 18 of Chelsea’s 20 titles! In goal is Hannah Hampton, the current England goalkeeper and arguably one of the best in her position. The 25-year-old kept eight clean sheets in 22 matches during the last WSL season – more than any of her league rivals. At the end of July, she extended her contract until the summer of 2028.  

In September 2025, Chelsea signed Alyssa Thompson, one of the greatest talents of all time. The 21-year-old forward joined from Angel City FC in Los Angeles and, alongside Sam Kerr, was the Blues’ top scorer in the league in the 2025/26 season with seven goals. In November 2025, she also scored the Women’s Super League Goal of the Month.

Bompastor and ‘her’ Champions League

Since 29 May 2024, Chelsea have been managed by the Frenchwoman Sonia Bompastor, who took over from Emma Hayes, who had been in the role for the previous twelve years. And Bompastor got off to an absolutely dream start: she won each of her first ten matches with Chelsea, including the club’s first-ever victory at rivals Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, and kicked off the league campaign with seven consecutive wins – the best start by any manager in the history of the Women’s Super League.

The 46-year-old is regarded as one of the best players in French football and, on top of that, is the only person ever to have won the UEFA Women’s Champions League both as a player (2010/11 and 2011/12) and as a manager (2021/22). She won all three titles with Lyon, for whom she made 167 appearances as a player and managed from the touchline in 118 matches.

The match against Austria Wien will be her 201st as head coach of a professional team and her 83rd with Chelsea. Her impressive record: she has emerged victorious in 164 of her 200 matches, suffering defeat on just 16 occasions.

A visit to Wimbledon

Wednesday’s match will not be played at Stamford Bridge – where, from this season onwards, all Women’s Super League home fixtures are due to be held – but at Plough Lane, the home ground of AFC Wimbledon, who compete in the men’s third-tier League One. For the time being, Chelsea will play all their cup and UWCL matches this season at the 9,215-capacity stadium. This classic, compact English stadium is situated in south-west London, not far from the world-famous tennis grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which hosts the Wimbledon Championships every summer.