{"id":416337,"date":"2026-02-09T15:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416337\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:13:10","slug":"i-know-who-i-am-sonia-bompastor-defiant-after-tough-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416337\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I know who I am&#8217; &#8211; Sonia Bompastor defiant after &#8216;tough&#8217; week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With the WSL title seemingly out of their grasp, Chelsea&#8217;s priority is to ensure they clinch a top-three spot and qualification for next season&#8217;s Champions League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rivals Arsenal and Manchester United did their part earlier in the weekend &#8211; so Chelsea had to respond. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Tottenham, who started the game a point behind Chelsea, came out of the blocks firing and could have taken the lead when Olivia Holdt hit the crossbar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Nervy Chelsea were in a battle until Keira Walsh&#8217;s goal just before half-time rocked Spurs and put the Blues in the driving seat. It was the &#8220;game-changer&#8221; they needed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;When you want to perform at your best, you need to have the four elements of the performance align at the highest level &#8211; the tactical, mental, physical and technical aspects,&#8221; said Bompastor. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If one of them, or some of them, are not as high as possible, it affects the performance. We were a different team in the second half. That&#8217;s who we want to be.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bompastor&#8217;s actions were deliberate on Sunday. After the warm-up, she walked out on to the pitch and high-fived every member of her squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She celebrated with assistant coach Meline Gerard, who lifted her up and spun her around in the dugout, when Walsh&#8217;s goal put Chelsea 1-0 up &#8211; something she rarely does, but said afterwards she should do more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In normal circumstances, a victory at Tottenham would be seen as par for the course. But this was three points which gave Chelsea a significant boost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I will enjoy it. I&#8217;m not going to lie, it&#8217;s been a difficult time. It&#8217;s been tough so we need to celebrate with players and staff,&#8221; said Bompastor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We know when we are at Chelsea we need to win every game and we want, as much as possible, to be in control. To do that, we need to get points to win. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We still have a lot to play for. We know what we can improve.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the WSL title seemingly out of their grasp, Chelsea&#8217;s priority is to ensure they clinch a top-three&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-416337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}