- In 2013 Hayes promised chairman a Champions League final
- Chelsea face fellow newer-money giants Barcelona in showpiece
In 2013 Chelsea’s manager, Emma Hayes, had itchy feet. Watching Wolfsburg beat Lyon at Stamford Bridge in the Women’s Champions League final, she turned to the chairman, Bruce Buck, and said: “It’ll be us one day, Bruce, it will be us, so give me time.”
Eight years later Hayes was brandishing her heart-rate monitor on Sunday to show the rollercoaster journey her body had been on as her team battled to a first final by beating Bayern Munich. As Chelsea clung on, with 16 minutes to play, the tie poised at 3-2, knowing a goal conceded would leave them needing two (because of away goals), the line illustrating Hayes’s heart rate spiked dramatically.
