Erin Cuthbert gave Chelsea a priceless first-leg lead in their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona after inflicting a first home defeat for five years on the holders.

Cuthbert’s 40th-minute strike was enough to secure a 1-0 win at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys – Barca’s first defeat of the season – on an afternoon when the Blues produced a superb defensive display to deny the free-scoring defending champions a single shot on target.

Things might have been different, however, had referee Stephanie Frappart not been advised to review her decision to award the hosts a second-half penalty for handball to leave Emma Hayes and her players with something to defend at Stamford Bridge next Saturday.

Jess Carter and Kadeisha Buchanan had to be resilient at the heart of the Blues defence early on, although it took a well-timed intervention by Ingrid Engen to prevent Johanna Rytting Kaneryd from making the most of Cuthbert’s 10th-minute ball over the top.

Carter had to be in the right place at the right time to block Salma Paralluelo’s 16th-minute shot after a pacy break by Aitana Bonmati and Buchanan was equally alert to deny the same player after she had burst clear six minutes later.

The visitors were growing into the game with Mayra Ramirez making in-roads down the left and they got their reward five minutes before the break when Sjoeke Nusken held the ball up and then squared for Cuthbert, whose shot looped up off Engel and over keeper Catalina Coll.

But they looked to be in trouble seconds later when the referee awarded a penalty against Buchanan after she had blocked Patri Guijarro’s goal-bound effort with her arm, only for a lengthy VAR review, which showed that Paralluelo had been offside in the build-up, to come to their rescue.

Paralluelo volleyed horribly wide after being picked out at the far post by Caroline Graham Hansen and substitute Alexia Putellas missed the target with salvation beckoning with the final kick of the game.

Chelsea head coach Emma Hayes has said she let herself down with comments on relationships between players and was wrong to use the term “inappropriate”.

Hayes said in a news conference on Thursday that player-coach relationships should be banned in the Women’s Super League and that player-player relationships were also “inappropriate”.

Chelsea defender Jess Carter, who is in a relationship with team-mate Ann-Katrin Berger, later liked a tweet claiming it was “beyond bonkers to bring player/player relationships into the conversation”.

Chelsea striker Sam Kerr announced her engagement with West Ham’s American midfielder Kristie Mewis last year.

After Chelsea’s WSL win against Arsenal on Friday night, Hayes, who has won six WSL titles since taking charge in 2012, said she regretted her comments.

Hayes said: “Of course Jess and I have had a conversation about that.

“I’m supposed to be the most non-clickbait coach and so I let myself down yesterday.

“I don’t think it was right for me to use the term inappropriate for the players.

“When I have honest conversations I don’t take things back but I have zero criticism of any player in my dressing room for anything regarding their status or who they’re in a relationship with.”

On Thursday, Aston Villa boss Carla Ward said a manager should be sacked for having a relationship with a player, calling it a “complete abuse of power”.

Hayes was one of several other WSL head coaches who claimed coach-player relationships should not be allowed.

When asked if a ban should be part of a wider WSL code of conduct, Hayes said: “Yeah, I think so. There are challenges that we should be moving past.”

England are doing their best to make it business as usual as they prepare to face Spain in the Women’s World Cup final in Sydney on Sunday.

Defender Jess Carter insists there will be no additional nerves ahead of a game she never envisaged being a part of, while head coach Sarina Wiegman is preoccupied by a selection dilemma.

Here, the PA news agency looks at all the latest news heading into Sunday’s big one:

More the merrier for Carter

England defender Jess Carter admits every extra minute is a bonus as she prepares to feature in Sunday’s World Cup final.

The 25-year-old has been one of the lynchpins of her side’s run to within 90 minutes of a first women’s World Cup win but says she did not expect to get this far.

“When I didn’t play against Denmark, I wasn’t not bothered, but it was just like, ‘I’ve just played in a World Cup, I had more minutes than I thought I was ever going to get coming into this tournament’.

“I didn’t come into the tournament expecting to play at all.”

And the laidback Lioness is adamant there will be no stage-fright on the biggest occasion of all, just “positive energy” at the prospect of making history.

“I’m not really a nervous person,” she added. “I understand and know from the outside, it’s the World Cup final, your biggest moment.

“I play my best when I’m super calm. Maybe some people have nerves but I think that will be challenged into positive energy come the night.”

Wiegman’s selection dilemma

Sarina Wiegman faces a selection dilemma ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final as she decides whether to start striker Lauren James.

James scored three times and picked up the same number of assists before she was sent off in the last 16 win over Nigeria, sitting out the quarter-final and semi-final as a result.

Replacement Ella Toone scored in the 3-1 win over Australia in the last four but Wiegman has indicated she holds nothing against James, who apologised for her rash stamp on Nigeria’s Michele Alozie.

“Of course she really regretted that moment straight away,” said Wiegman. “She apologised, she was punished for that and we all know this should not happen in football.

“She started training again and we supported her, because sometimes when you’re not that experienced at this level some fatigue comes in the game and you have just a split second where you lose your emotions.

“That’s a mistake, that’s a hard learning lesson, but now she’s ready to play in the game.”

Vilda’s revenge bid

Spain coach Jorge Vilda is determined his side learn the lessons of their extra-time loss to England in last summer’s European Championship quarter-finals.

Vilda has guided his nation to their first final despite a backdrop of controversy after over a dozen top stars quit the squad last year in a row over their treatment.

Referencing their narrow defeat in Brighton, Vilda said: “It was a game that we know we were on top, but the result is what counts.

“Games against England really require our best. She (Wiegman) is a trainer that with her results has shown the fruits of her work, it’s not easy what she has achieved.”

Shutting down questions over the ongoing issues in his squad, Vilda added: “What we want to do tomorrow is be the best in the world and we’ll do this by winning the final.”

Opened up!

Cornwall Council were the first to heed a plea from cabinet minister Michael Gove to allow licensed premises to open one hour early for the World Cup final on Sunday.

Current regulations mean the sale of alcohol is widely prohibited before 10am on Sunday, but venues such as pubs also have specific hours they can stay open and serve alcohol depending on individual licences.

Gove urged councils to do everything they can to help premises extend their licenses, saying: “the whole nation is ready to get behind the Lionesses this Sunday in what is England’s biggest game since 1966.”

Cornwall Council, in association with Devon and Cornwall Police, were quick to heed Gove’s call, announcing that they will be no “enforcement action” if the alcohol starts to flow slightly earlier.

Swede dreams

Australia’s home World Cup came to a disappointing end as they were beaten 2-0 by Sweden in the third place play-off.

Kosovare Asllani sealed victory with a brilliant second half strike after Fridolina Rolfo had opened the scoring with a penalty on the half-hour mark.

The result rounded off a remarkable campaign from the Matildas, who captured the public’s imagination having only reached the quarter-finals once previously.

Australia coach Tony Gustavsson, whose side suffered a 3-1 semi-final defeat against England, said the journey was far from over, insisting: “We have a massive amount of work to do to capitalise on this.”

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Final: Spain v England (Sydney, Sunday 1100BST)

England defender Jess Carter is adamant even the prospect of playing Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final will not sway her steely nerves.

While many footballers will claim they take a business-as-usual approach to even the biggest games, the declaration feels especially genuine when articulated by the laidback 25-year-old, who has been instrumental in ensuring the Lionesses have conceded just three goals in their unbeaten run to the title decider.

The Lionesses have already assured themselves of a best-ever finish in a global showpiece by reaching this stage, and Carter is confident they can go one step further to secure England a first World Cup since 1966.

Asked if she would have any stage fright on Sunday, Carter replied: “Personally, I won’t have. It’s football.

“I’m not really a nervous person. I understand and know from the outside, it’s the World Cup final, your biggest moment. I play my best when I’m super calm. At the end of the day, it’s just a game of football.

“We have to perform as we did in the first group game. Maybe some people have nerves but I think that will be challenged into positive energy come the night.

“I’m super excited – I don’t think it has really sunk in yet.

“There’s been such a quick turnaround between the last game and the next that you almost don’t have time to notice what’s been going on. It’s head down, rest, recovery and get ready to go again.”

Each member of a team brings something different. Though Carter had not fully considered it, she acknowledged serenity could be seen as her signature strength.

She said: “I think I chat with everyone and that’s something that a lot of the girls say, that I am super chill. I’ve had a couple of people feed back to say that it’s a really nice, I guess, aura to be around a little bit.”

Carter’s journey to this point started later than many of her team-mates’.

Though she started playing casually when she was “four or five”, the now 25-year-old did not join an academy until she was 15, following a successful trial with Birmingham and – in her own words – was not a “consistent presence” in England’s youth set-up.

The Warwick native received her first senior call-up in 2017 and made her debut that November against Kazakhstan in a 2017 World Cup qualifier, but was not called back until nearly four years later, when then-new England boss Sarina Wiegman took a chance and named Carter in her first squad in September 2021.

Carter has been vital this campaign, starting every game except England’s second – a 1-0 victory over Denmark – and rapidly adjusted when Wiegman switched systems from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 after that match with Carter, captain Millie Bright and veteran Alex Greenwood forming the back three.

She said: “When I didn’t play against Denmark, I wasn’t not bothered, but it was just like, ‘I’ve just played in a World Cup, I had more minutes than I thought I was ever going to get coming into this tournament’. I didn’t come into the tournament expecting to play at all.

“I was so honoured to be part of the team. Obviously, of course, you always want to play every minute and when I spoke to Sarina and (heard) her reasons and our tactics, she’s going to make the best decisions that she thinks are appropriate to go and win a game.”

Carter, who can slot into both defence and midfield, does wonder how her career might have looked different had she instead been afforded the opportunity to nail down a single position, admitting: “That’s the question I ask myself every single day.

“It’s definitely something that’s a massive positive, but at the same time, sometimes I do wish that if I could just play this one position, absolutely smash it. Then I wonder what level I could get myself to if I could just focus on that point.”

Make no mistake, Carter is competitive and is as determined to win the World Cup as the rest of her team-mates, but the unfailingly calm and collected character comes out again when asked if she has stopped to think about how lifting the trophy could change her life.

She replied: “No. I’m just going to go home. I’m going to go home to my apartment, really and I don’t know, just chill.”