The Blues went behind in the Spanish capital on Thursday evening before rescuing a point against a tough side looking to make amends for losing on the their trip to London.

There was a touch of good fortune about the Chelsea equaliser. Having won a penalty, Guro Reiten’s strike went in via the post and then the Real Madrid goalkeeper and goes down as an own goal.

It was third time lucky when hitting woodwork for the Blues, who had done so twice in first half without scoring. Both were Sam Kerr shots and soon after the second one, Emma Hayes’s side conceded for the first time in this season’s Champions League to go in 1-0 down at half-time.

The Madrid goal, scored by former Man City player Caroline Weir, came from a misdirected pass by our goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.

That error came late in what had not been the Blues at our best during those first 45 minutes. The equaliser was early in the second half but a big shift up in gears did not follow. Instead the remaining highlights after the break came when both goalkeepers had a moment of redemption for their earlier problems by making very good saves.

With Paris St-Germain’s 4-0 victory away to Vllaznia in today’s earlier Group A game, Chelsea lead the group with 10 points, three more than PSG and five ahead of Real Madrid.

The selection

Emma Hayes made four changes from the 8-0 WSL beating of Leicester at the weekend with Jess Carter and Kadeisha Buchanan coming into the defence, Erin Cuthbert added to the midfield and Lauren James playing in an attacking role. Carter played her 100th Chelsea game.

Chelsea went into this game knowing a win would be enough for a place in the quarter-finals with two group games to spare, and the Blues fired against the woodwork for the first time inside the opening two minutes.

There had been pressure on from the start with two corners won and during a goalmouth scramble, Kerr lifted the ball onto the crossbar.

The returning Lauren James then slotted Kerr through but our Australian star had just strayed offside.

After that sharp start by Chelsea, the game settled into a more even contest albeit with plenty of Blues possession. There was some defending to do for Bright and Buchanan. Real Madrid would have been satisfied with how they worked their way back into the game.

Blues go behind

Midway through the half, Olga Carmona sent an ambitious attempt past the Chelsea post with Berger scrambling across but never looking like being beaten. However there was a price to pay for the German in that she needed some treatment from that, but she continued.

It was with half-an-hour played that Kerr saw an effort rebound off the woodwork again. Released by James once more, given the time and the position our centre-forward was in, she must have been more disappointed to see this one come back off the post than her earlier narrow miss.

Instead it was Real who took the lead. Minutes earlier, Berger made a save from Sandie Toletti but when she then passed the ball out without spotting the alert Weir, the Scotland international made no mistake in finding the unguarded net.

How would the Blues react to the rare feeling of being behind? It was after a scoreless first half at Kingsmeadow that Hayes’s side found the two goals in the home meeting with Real Madrid.

Fran Kirby and Niamh Charles replaced Jessie Fleming and Magda Eriksson at half-time but initially a few rough edges to this performance remained.

Finding a way back

However with 10 minutes of the second period played, the penalty was won. A Sophie Ingle pass found Reiten on the left of the area and as she cut across Ivana Andres, the Real captain brought the Norwegian down.

Reiten’s left-footed spot-kick was touched onto the post by Misa Rodriguez but it bounced back onto the unfortunate goalie and crossed the goal-line that way. 1-1.

Despite the decent amount of time left after the Chelsea goal, another did not follow.

The Spaniards manufactured a very good chance to win the game not long before the end. Carmona burst into the box and unleashed a fierce drive but was denied by a top-quality Berger save.

That was matched when Reiten superbly split the Spanish defence but when Kerr shot, Rodriguez somehow tipped the ball over. With that following the two woodwork strikes, it was not Sam’s night.

With two games to go, away to Vllaznia and at home to PSG, and having won the first three, the Blues remain in a strong position to reach the knockout stages.

What’s next?

There is one WSL game left before Christmas and it is at home – against 10th-place Reading on Sunday with a 6.45pm kick-off.

• Click for tickets

Chelsea Berger; Carter, Buchanan, Bright, Eriksson (c) (Charles h-t); Cuthbert, Ingle; James (Rytting Kaneryd 77), Fleming (Kirby h-t), Reiten; Kerr.

Unused subs Musovic, Orman, Abdullina, Perisset, Mjelde, Nouwen, Cankovic, Svitkova, England.

Scorer Rodriguez o.g 58

Booked Carter 63, James 66

Real Madrid Rodriguez; Andres (c), Sousa, Galvez, Carmona, Weir, Toletti, Zornoza (Oroz 74), Del Castillo, Feller (Garcia 90), Gonzalez (Svava 61).

Unused subs Gerard, Fuente, Robles, Abelleira, Florentino, Rodriguez, Moller, Olofsson, Camacho.

Scorer Weir 37

Booked Del Castillo 21

Referee Kateryna Monzul from Ukraine