ANATOMY OF A MATCH: Chelsea 2 Brighton 1 in the words of both head coaches.

We spoke exclusively to Brighton boss Dario Vidosic and Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor after a transitional game that ebbed and flowed constantly, especially second half.

Classic game of two halves. Chelsea’s scary forward line of Aggie Beever-Jones, Alyssa Thompson and Lauren James – along with the pinpoint crossing of Sandy Baltimore – played havoc with Brighton’s defence in the first half. Typified by the languid, no-look backpass from LJ to Baltimore, whose cross saw tiny Thompson rise above much taller defenders to open the scoring. Hang it in the Louvre, as they say.

Quickly, though, Brighton counterattacked, and young Spanish striker Carla Camacho led Lucy Bronze a merry dance, eventually seeing her long-range shot deflect off the England veteran’s boot for the equaliser. Ex-Blues legend Fran Kirby also threatened constantly.

But Chelsea weren’t done, with Baltimore once again crossing from the left, then neat link-up play between Beever-Jones and Thompson laying the ball off to Lexi Potter, who struck her close-range shot to keeper Chiamaka Nnadozie’s left.

Sonia Bompastor looked pleased at halftime, and Dario Vidosic started to make several changes that re-shaped his team’s formation in the second half – then mirrored by Chelsea subs – culminating in a frantic last few minutes. And as we went into added time, Brighton threw everything but the kitchen sink at Chelsea, with even Nnadozie coming up for corners and crosses.

Also notable: making her first WSL start for Chelsea – and scoring what proved to be the winner –Potter was deservedly Player of the Match.

Maybe a draw would have been fairer, but somehow Chelsea always manage to dig in and find a way to victory – and this was a proper team performance.

First up, we spoke to Dario Vidosic, quizzing him on Brighton’s efforts to grab a draw late on.

That was a bit helter-skelter at the end, wasn’t it?

Dario Vidosic: Yeah, it was, you know.

We were trying to be neutral, and felt you deserved something out of the second half?

Yes and no.

I think first half we weren’t good enough. When you come here you have to be good for a larger amount than just maybe one half.

Especially when you’re playing the likes of Chelsea, just coming off a league cup win, their confidence is sky high and you can see with some of the football one touch, you know, even like Erin [Cuthbert] comes in from the corner, switches the ball across our own 18-yard box, the confidence that they play with… and I think we lacked that in the first half.

It looked like we were playing without much confidence.

We looked a little bit hesitant; players being in positions where it’s: I look like I’m on the ball, but I’m not really demanding it, wanting to get on it.

We understood how they wanted to press quite aggressively.

We were trying to find the space when we did find it.

We did try to take the territory, to make them run, make them move.

So we started to force the passes a little bit, and then they were able to gain control.

Both goals come from very similar situations with Sandy [Baltimore] putting them across.

And normally we deal with those crosses quite well.

First one we get dragged out of position, second one similar, and then it falls into positions where really we should be.

So disappointing on that part, but good reaction to score.

I haven’t seen it well, it took a deflection [off Lucy Bronze], I believe, and crept in to the near post.

But again, at that moment to get back in the game, we should maybe try to not slow it down, be able to play, try to sustain the pressure a bit more in Chelsea’s half, which we did a lot better in the second half.

It felt like Chelsea – when they took off Lauren James and brought on Kadeisha Buchanan – were trying to shut up shop. Whereas your subs were maybe a little more attacking?

Yeah, it could be.

LJ’s a phenomenal player.

You know, there was one [moment] where I think she went through everyone towards the goal.

That’s just the quality that she possesses.

We were aware of that.

So, you’re trying not to leave her 1v1 with a lot of space, because she just glides through basically every team in world football.

Look, we tried to throw… we even tried to put Maelys [Mpome] high.

We’re just trying to put as much attacking as we possibly can.

And some of them maybe haven’t played there.

You know, we were hoping with Maelys and Marit [Auee] and Caitlin [Hayes], we had a fair bit of maybe height advantage as well.

So if we didn’t manage the set pieces, we wanted delivery.

But yeah, just getting in good areas, but I think that sometimes we rushed, they were crossing from very far out wide, and we just weren’t able to create a really good chance for someone.

And when we did, Chelsea defended it really well, desperate to make blocks, and they’re looking for something… and they get the equalizer.

What can you learn about your team and their grit in a match like today?

Yeah, look, full credit to the girls, the reaction in the second half.

It is easy sometimes, especially the way you can go 1-0 down, then we react, we get the equalizer quickly, then we see it again, a very similar goal.

It can be easy then to collapse in a way and then and before you know it you’ve conceded three or four and the game’s completely out of reach.

So we knew we were still in it even though we weren’t at our best level in the first half and then that was the challenge at half time: let’s be brave!

If we’re going to go down, let’s go down playing our way, getting on the ball and if we make mistakes that way it’s no issue with me.

And I thought we’ve done that in the second half, and we have to take some confidence from that.

I thought Rosa Kafaji, when she came on, made an immediate impact. She seemed to be dragging them out to the sides quite a bit.

Yeah, she did. She made a good impact.

I think Bex [Rayner] as well made a good impact.

That’s it. We’ve got a lot of young players that are learning, that haven’t played a lot of football.

Even Rosa last year. She didn’t play at all, really, at Arsenal.

So, they’re trying to find their feet, they’re going to make mistakes.

It’s hard, if we compare, say, Erin to Rosa, two players that came on, the experience that Erin has. She comes in, she understands what the game requires, what it needs, and while our players, some of them are quite young, like Carla [Camacho], Rosa, that are learning, that need to experience these things.

Tonight they’ll have that, and they’ll learn a lot, and I hope the next time that they come out, they’ll be even better.

Then we spoke to Sonia Bompastor, still basking in the glow of winning the League Cup Final three days earlier. She is only too aware that the games don’t get any easier from now on, in the ‘business end’ of the season.

You must be really pleased because they really put the pressure on it, especially towards the end of the second half.

Sonia Bompastor: Yeah, pleased with the result, for sure.

As I’ve already mentioned, from now we’ll take game by game and try to work as hard as possible and perform as best as possible to get the win.

I think we did a great first half, probably the second half, we didn’t control the game the way we wanted to, especially keeping a little bit more the ball.

Yeah, I would say second half, we still stayed strong defensively, we defended as a team.

And that’s also why I’m pleased because we didn’t concede at the end and that’s important.

It was tight at the end there, wasn’t it?

Yeah, the last few minutes.

Just because, mentally sometimes when you have the opportunity to score the third goal and you don’t, you just give more hope to the opposition and at the end they just throw everything at you.

And it’s more difficult, but at the same time we didn’t concede a goal and it’s a good sign.

We can stay strong even when we are not controlling the game the way we would like to.

So it’s quite positive for us as well.

I’d like to ask about the substitution in the 57th minute when you took off LJ and put on Kadeisha Buchanan (above, right).

It felt like you were almost battening down the hatches, rather than maybe going for it because at the end of the season that second and third place could come down to goal difference.

And I wonder if these are the games where you could be piling on the goals a bit more?

Yeah, we always try to score as many goals as possible.

I think the plan, even when I made the substitution, was very much to stay aggressive, to have the high press and to try to score more goals.

Sometimes as much as you plan things, it doesn’t always go the way you want.

The other team also adapted a little bit.

They changed and played with the 4-4-2, two strikers, and I think it changed a little bit the game.

But again, our mentality is always to try to score as much as we can, try to stay strong defensively.

We couldn’t score more than two, but it was still enough for us to win.

Sjoeke Nusken played right back tonight, and I wonder apart from goalkeeper, is there any position she hasn’t played on the pitch?

I’ve seen her play as a number 9, a 10, midfield 6 and 8, central defence, anywhere she hasn’t played?

Yeah, maybe the goalkeeper position, but she’s probably top of the list if we have to go to that option, if something happens to all three goalkeepers!

She’s great for that reason, because she will always play where the manager asks her to play.

The team is always more important for her than herself individually, and it’s great to have a player like her.

I think her versatility just shows, and it’s good for me to have these different options, especially now, having less players available.

Having players who can play different positions helps a lot.

And she’s always keen to help the team.

I think it’s great and she performed well.

Lexi Potter, this was her first WSL start and her first WSL goal, is that right?

Could you just say a little bit about Lexi (above, left and centre), because she’s come through the academy, been out on loan, come back, and she seems to be really blossoming.

Yeah, I’m pleased for her because she’s a great kid.

She’s a really good player, she has a lot of talent, even if she’s still young.

When you give the opportunity to a player like this to play more minutes, that’s when she can show her level.

And I think today she contributed to the performance and to the result.

First, it’s a good confidence boost for her individually and I’m pleased because she’s a hard worker, she has a great mentality and it’s good to have Lexi playing at that level and for her to get some recognition.