Chelsea progress into semi-finals after second-leg draw against Ajax

Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw by Ajax in their Women’s Champions League quarter-final, but their work was already done from the first leg as they advance into the semi-finals.

Mayra Ramirez’s 34th-minute goal gave the Blues an unassailable aggregate advantage at Stamford Bridge, while Chasity Grant gave the Dutch side a glimmer of hope after 65 minutes.

However, Emma Hayes’ Chelsea were able to cruise into the last four in second gear, with a shade of complacency about them, as they were given a good test by Suzanne Bakker’s side.

This was a game of chances for both sides, as Romee Leuchter went closest for the visitors, while Zecira Musovic had her heart in her mouth after her clearance clattered off the pressing Tiny Hoekstra and kissed the foot of the post in an even first 45 minutes.

But Chelsea’s experience told, as Ramirez worked a yard of space to slot home beyond Regina van Eijk after being found by Guro Reiten.

The visitors responded with a second-half suckerpunch as Grant tucked the ball underneath Musovic following Rosa van Gool’s through pass to set up an interesting last 25 minutes in west London, and the Dutch side had their tails up as they sought the unlikeliest of comebacks.

But Chelsea were wily in their play, seeing out the tie to sail into the semis.

picture

Chasity Grant Chelsea Ajax

Image credit: Getty Images

Talking point – A tricky test ahead of cup final number one

It wasn’t all plain-sailing for Hayes’ side, as Ajax posed their problems on the counter-attack, and the home side were sloppy in possession, particularly at the back.

Hayes had made changes – as she had the right to do considering the 3-0 advantage coming into this match – but certain deputies might not have played themselves into her plans for this weekend’s League Cup final against Arsenal.

Musovic made some decent saves towards the end, but was nervy with her feet, while Jess Carter and Kadeisha Buchanan also gave the ball away in silly positions when looking to play out from the back.

They may be through, and that’s all they’ll care about, but this was not a vintage Emma Hayes Chelsea performance by any means.

Player of the match – Erin Cuthbert, Chelsea

Composed, calm, classy.

The Scotswoman was the heartbeat of the side, making everything tick in the middle of the park.

She showed great technique and footwork in tight areas, and excellent defensive awareness for second and third player runs off her shoulder.

She is crucial to this side.

picture

Chelsea-Ajax celebration

Image credit: Getty Images

Player ratings

Chelsea: Musovic 5, Perisset 6, Carter 5, Buchanan 5, Lawrence 6, Cuthbert 8, Ingle 6, Kirby 6, B-Jones 6, Ramirez 7, Reiten 6. Subs: Nusken 6, Macario 6. Cankovic 6, R-Kaneryd 6.

Ajax: van Eijk 6, Kardinaal 6, Spitse 7, de Sanders 6, de Klonia 6, Noordam 6, van Goo 6l, van de Velde 6, Grant 6, Leuchter 6, Hoekstra 6. Subs: Keijzer 6, Keukelaar 6, Noordman 6, Verhoeve 6, Tolhoek 6.

Match highlights

17’: CLOSE! That’s the closest that Ajax have come to getting on the scoresheet as the ball bounces into her path, and she spins Buchanan well before getting a snapshot off. However, she miscues it and it drifts wide of the far corner!

18’: OH MY GOODNESS! Tiny Hoekstra is so close to giving Ajax the lead as she charges down Musovic’s clearance, and the ball hits the onrushing winger and heads goalbound, but it clips the edge of the post and is away to safety. Not the best moment for Chelsea’s goalkeeper there!

34’: GOAL! CHELSEA 1-0 AJAX (RAMIREZ) On her debut in this competition for the Blues, Mayra Ramirez shows just why they signed her in January. Acres of space opened up on the right side of the Ajax defence, which the Colombian took full advantage of, gathering Reiten’s pass to stroke home beyond the helpless van Eijk. 1-0 Chelsea on the night, 4-0 on aggregate.

65’: GOAL! CHELSEA 1-1 AJAX (GRANT) A great goal to equalise on the night, as van Gool slides through a pass to Chasity Grant, who curves her run well to stay onside. She slots a tame effort underneath Musovic, who perhaps could have done better.

81’: GOOD SAVE! Leuchter still can’t score as she steps inside of Jess Carter, shaping it onto her right, but she didn’t put it wide enough of the keeper, who makes the save from close range.

Key stat

‘Such a difficult thing to do’ – Houghton to retire at end of season

TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.

Collins reveals ‘pretty resilient’ mentality after beating Garcia to reach Miami semis

Former Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins opened up on the mental battles that tennis players face after beating Caroline Garcia in straight sets to reach the Miami Open semi-final.

The American recorded a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory without dropping serve.

It is the second time she has reached the last four of the event, having also got there in 2018.

The 30-year-old, who has announced she will retire from tennis at the end of the season, will now face Ekaterina Alexandrova or Jessica Pegula for a place in the final.

“She hit some really strong shots, and the games were really close,” Collins said in her on court interview afterwards.

“I don’t think that the set scores are necessarily a reflection of how close the match really is. It’s been like that every time we play.

“One of the things that makes me pretty resilient mentally is having a lot of detachment and I’ve worked a lot on that.

“You have to in this sport. It’s such a roller coaster each week. You’re losing practically every week. You have weeks that you win, but usually you’re losing. It’s like that for most of the players, even a lot of the top players.

“That’s been something I’ve worked on my whole career, and I feel like I’ve got pretty good at stomaching those highs and lows. It’s just about having fun out here, enjoying it, taking it all in and not being so caught up in the day to day, as much as possible.”

Collins has slipped to No. 63 in the world rankings after an injury-hit couple of years, but put in a near faultless display against the 23rd seed.

The first set was a tight encounter, with neither player able to force a single break point across the first six games.

However, Collins finally broke at the perfect time when Garcia failed to hold at 4-3, and her American opponent duly served it out in her next game.

The Frenchwoman required a medical timeout in the second set, when she received rigorous treatment to her right shoulder area.

She had already been broken by this point though, dropping her second service game as Collins raced into a 3-1 lead.

And although Garcia recovered sufficiently to continue, her opponent forced further break points in the seventh game, and she duly converted at the fourth attempt after cracking a backhand down the line.

That opened up a 5-2 advantage, and there was to be no comeback from there as the American held to love, whipping a cross-court forehand so seal victory with her 22nd winner of the match.

Stream top tennis action, including the French Open, live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com

Page to remain as Wales boss for ‘forthcoming campaign’

TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media

‘Quite poetic’ – Northampton prop Ethan Waller follows brother Alex into retirement

TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media

Team GB’s Olympic champion Lee out of Paris 2024 after spinal surgery

Defending Olympic champion Matty Lee has been ruled out of the Paris 2024 Games after undergoing spinal surgery.

The 26-year-old was hoping to defend the 10 metres synchro crown, which he famously won alongside Tom Daley in Tokyo three years ago.

However, he has been struggling with back pain throughout the current season, and decided to go under the knife to get the problem sorted.

The result is that he is now “pain free” but a lengthy recovery process means he will not be in France later this year.

“A week ago today, I went under for a discectomy on my L5/S1 disc in my spine,”

. “The surgery went well, but my surgeon told me my nerve was very stuck and it took longer than expected to remove my bulging disc without damaging my nerve.

“He also told me it wouldn’t have got better on its own so to have the surgery was the right decision.”

Lee has enjoyed a glittering career so far, which reached its pinnacle when landing gold at Tokyo 2020.

In the same year, he won the European Championship, and added the Commonwealth title two years ago.

That pair are now set to head to France, but the same cannot be said for Lee, who continued: “What this means for me this year is self explanatory which is very sad but the reason I look so damn happy in hospital is that I’m no longer in chronic pain, we’ve found a solution and I have something to work on.

“This season so far has been really tough, felt like I’ve been dragging myself through the dirt. In a weird way I’ve been put out of my misery but it’s also forced me to look after myself and that’s what’s important.”

Discovery+ is the streaming home of the Olympic Games, and the only place you can watch every moment of Paris 2024 this summer

Millard ‘hopeful’ Care will extend Harlequins career after international retirement

TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.

‘We can’t have two riders from that level’ – Vollering to leave SD Worx, team boss confirms

SD Worx-Protime boss Danny Stam has confirmed that star rider Demi Vollering will leave the outfit at the end of this current season.

Vollering, the defending Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift champion, is out of contract at the end of the season.

The 27-year-old also won Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Amstel Gold Race, Strade Bianche, La Fleche Wallone and Dwars door Vlaanderen in what was an astonishing and historic 2023.

However there had been constant speculation about her future with SD Worx also having Belgian star Lotte Kopecky on their books, who this season has won UAE Tour, Strade Bianche and Nokere Koerse.

The announcement comes after the team extended Vollering until 2028 in February.

“Everyone knows that Lotte has signed until 2028 and we’ve tried hard to keep the team but for Demi, I don’t think that it’s an option for us,” Stam said.

“It’s about budget. You need to make a choice, and at one moment things can go away but I think it’s clear that we can’t have two riders from that level in our team.”

It means that cycling fans will finally get to see Vollering and Kopecky go head-to-head.

The news will probably not be a surprise to interested teams but it sets the stage for a fascinating battle between the rest of the top teams as they look to close the gap to SD Worx.

picture

Highlights: Kopecky attacks and soloes to impressive victory at Nokere Koerse

Team manager Erwin Janssen added: “We made Demi Vollering a generous offer and indicated that this should be responded to before a certain date. Vollering’s management did not respond to this.

“Therefore, we assume that Vollering will leave the team at the end of the year. The report in the media that we recently sat down with Demi or her management is not true.”

Since the end of 2023 and the start of 2024, there have been rumours within the Dutch media that UAE Team ADQ have offered Vollering a bumper contract to make the switch.

At the time of writing, no other teams have been linked by the media to Vollering.

Speaking recently to the Eurosport Cycling Show, Vollering said it would be a dream to capture the hat-trick of Tour de France, Olympics and World Championships.

“There’s the Olympics, the Tour de France, with the start in Rotterdam where I was born really close to, which will be so special for me, then after that we have the World Championships in Switzerland where I live at the moment.

“The Olympics is so special because it’s only once every four years, the Tour is also something I am really focused for, then the World Championships… it’s a big dream for me to have that [rainbow] jersey on.

“Can I have the three of them? Is that OK?”

Eurosport and discovery+ are the home of women’s cycling

Superb Jorgenson attack seals victory for Visma after Van Aert crash

The final chasing pack came down to Tiesj Benoot and Jorgenson (both Visma), Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ), Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers), Dries De Bondt (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility)

That group had included Alberto Bettiol (EF-Education) and indeed at various points it had seemed that he might be the winner but he cramped up after an attack and dropped away.

Entering the final 10km, the threat clearly came from the two Visma riders and the others had to try and work together to keep them in check.

Unsurprisingly, it was Benoot who pushed away first with Tarling holding onto him but the rest of the pack did their best to keep up with them, continuing the games of cat and mouse that had plagued the break for most of the race.

A couple of kilometres on, it was Kung who pushed the pace up and Tarling was the one who was caught up but incredibly a minute or two later while the others were playing, he caught back up.

However just as he rejoined the group, Jorgenson decided that was the moment – he went and the others didn’t seem able to close the gap, at least initially.

Entering the closing stages, the chasing group of five seemed spent and didn’t have anything left in the tank, particularly De Bondt and Abrahamsen who had been in the leading pack for so much of the day.

“It’s unbelievable, it really is,” Jorgenson said afterwards. “This whole season has been a dream so far, surreal actually.

“Yeah, very important [to have two riders in the break], as a team our whole strategy is based around having numbers in the final so there was a moment in one of the last cobbles section when Stefan Kung was going in the gutter and Tiesj was a little bit gapped but thankfully I waited for him because without him I wouldn’t have won this race.

“I was on Wout’s wheel at the time actually. It was obviously a decisive moment in the race, it was just a racing incident, we had two lead-out trains tracking us and we came together and it was a really ugly fall.

“I saw the whole thing and I knew that Wout was going to be out of the race at that point because we were going so fast. Tiesj and I continued with the plan because there’s still a bike race but my thoughts are with Wout and the rest of the guys involved.

“After Paris-Nice I refocused a bit because I didn’t have an auto-qualifying spot for the Olympics and that’s a big goal for me to make it to the Olympics so now I have that in the pocket and its been an insane season, I really can’t believe it.”

Earlier in the day, at 67km, a huge crash in the peloton wiped out a number of big names including Van Aert, Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) and Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek).

As riders prepared to enter the final 50km, the race had been blown wide open by the crash, with a break, two separate chasing groups and the peloton.

Stream the 2024 cycling season live on Eurosport and discovery+

Van Aert abandons race after terrible crash days before Tour of Flanders

A huge crash in the Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday saw a number of riders including Wout van Aert (Visam-Lease-a-Bike) forced to abandon the Men’s race.

With 60km to go, several riders in the peloton went to ground in a huge pile-up, with a number, including Van Aert, needing medical treatment.

The 29-year-old was in distress on the road, with his jersey almost ripped completely from his grazed back, before being helped onto a stretcher.

The incident looks set to impact his participation in the Tour of Flanders at the weekend.

Aside from Van Aert, Alex Kirsch (Lidl-Trek), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Biniam Girmay (Intermarche–Wanty), Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin–Deceuninck), Harry Sweeny (EF-Education) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) were also involved.

Girmay and Stuyven joined Van Aert in abandoning the race.

“This is absolutely nightmarish!” remarked Rob Hatch on commentary.

“This has been a huge swathe of the favourites who have been cut down, I’m afraid.”

More to follow…

Stream all the top cycling action, including the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana, live and on-demand on Discovery+.