Preview: Chelsea Women vs Roma Women - prediction, team news, lineups

Chelsea Women will be looking to bounce back from Sunday's surprise league defeat to Everton when they welcome Roma Women to Stamford Bridge for Wednesday's Women's Champions League clash.

The Blues are sitting in sixth place in the league phase, while Roma are down in 16th spot with just one point in their name. 

Match preview

Chelsea are in the hunt to advance straight to the UWCL quarter-finals, with two points separating them from the top four in the league phase.

The Blues are one of three teams yet to lose in this season's main draw, having collected eight points from their four matches, including a hard-earned point in their most recent European encounter against Barcelona.

In fact, Chelsea would have been disappointed to miss out on all three points after they produced an impressive performance in a game where Ellie Carpenter saw her opener cancelled out by Ewa Pajor.

Sonia Bompastor's side were unable to produce a similar display in Sunday's Women's Super League home meeting with Everton, who condemned Chelsea to a narrow 1-0 defeat at Kingsmeadow following Honoka Hayashi's early effort.

The result represented the first league defeat since Bompastor took over the reins ahead of the 2024-25 season, leaving them six points adrift of leaders Manchester City in the battle for the WSL table.

Chelsea have also gone three competitive matches without a win, so they will be desperate to record their third victory of the league phase in Wednesday's clash with Roma.  

© Imago / Gribaudi/ImagePhoto

Roma have significant work to do in their final two league phase matches if they are to have any hopes of reaching the UWCL knockout rounds for the first time since 2022-23.

With just two games left to play, the Italian side are sitting four points adrift of the top 12 after collecting just one point from their first four league phase matches.

Luca Rossettini's side lost to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valerenga before playing out a 1-1 draw against Leuven on matchday four.

They followed that result with a narrow 1-0 league win over Como before they had to settle for a point in Saturday's home meeting with reigning Italian champions Juventus.

Valentina Bergamaschi saw her 12th-minute opener cancelled out by Tatiana Pinto's 70th-minute effort in the 1-1 draw, although Roma will still be pleased to be top of the standings with a four-point lead over second-placed Como. 

They will now travel to England with the ambitious goal of becoming the first team to beat Chelsea in the UWCL since Barcelona in last season's semi-final. 

Chelsea Women Women's Champions League form:

Chelsea Women form (all competitions):

Roma Women Women's Champions League form:

Roma Women form (all competitions):

Team News

© Imago / IMAGO / Visionhaus

Chelsea are without the services of Hannah Hampton, Kadiesha Buchanan, and Mayra Ramirez through injury. 

Midfielder Erin Cuthbert took a knock to her head in Scotland's friendly against China and remains a doubt after she missed the defeat to Everton due to the concussion protocol.

Wieke Kaptein and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd are among those who could come into the side for Wednesday's UWCL clash. 

As for Roma, they are unable to call upon winger Emilie Haavi, who underwent knee surgery in November. 

Defender Katrine Veje is unlikely to feature after picking up an injury in Roma's last European outing against Leuven.

Rossettini could decide to name the same lineup that started Saturday's draw against Juventus as long as there are no fresh injury issues. 

Chelsea Women possible starting lineup:

Peng; Carpenter, Bronze, Girma, Baltimore; Rytting Kaneryd, Kaptein, Walsh, Hamano, Thompson; Beever-Jones

Roma Women possible starting lineup:

Balde; Bergamaschi, Valdezate, Oladipo, Di Guglielmo; Reike, Greggi, Giugliano; Corelli, Pilgrim, Viens

We say: Chelsea Women 3-1 Roma Women

Chelsea will be keen to produce a positive response to Sunday's defeat to Everton, and knowing that Roma may have to take risks in search of a win, we think the Blues will create plenty of chances to claim a comfortable victory. 

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.