Chelsea rescued a point against Real Madrid but could not get the win needed to confirm the team’s progression to the Champions League knockout stage with two games to play. Guro Reiten’s second-half penalty, which went in off the back of Real’s goalkeeper, Misa Rodríguez, cancelled out the mistake of Chelsea’s goalkeeper, Ann-Katrin Berger, who gifted the ball to the Scotland midfielder Caroline Weir for the opener in the sides’ 1-1 draw. The London side remain top of Group A, three points clear of Paris Saint-Germain and five ahead of Real, with a trip to Albania to face the minnows Vllaznia next before the team welcomes PSG to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea made four changes to the side which demolished Leicester City 8-0 on Sunday, with Ève Périsset, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Fran Kirby and Niamh Charles all shifted to the bench in favour of Jess Carter, Kadeisha Buchanan, Erin Cuthbert and Lauren James, who all returned to the starting XI. For the Real Madrid manager, Alberto Toril, there were two changes to the team that beat Levante Las Planas, with the midfielder Sandie Toletti and captain, Ivana Andrés, back. Emma Hayes said the Champions League “is the goal every year” before the game and said her side needed to “focus on our experience and what we’ve done in the competition. We weren’t this time last year.” Last year Chelsea failed to escape the group stage having finished tournament runners-up the previous season. This time they have dominated Group A with three wins from three games. In the reverse fixture at Kingsmeadow, goals from Sophie Ingle and Cuthbert gave the Blues a comfortable win. Perhaps it was the pressure of being on the verge of assuring progression that got to the Blues but a calamitous mistake from Berger allowed Las Blancas to take a shock first-half lead. Berger collected a backpass and played it straight to the feet of the former Manchester City midfielder Weir, who fired into the unguarded net. Chances for Hayes’s side were few and far between. A corner in the second minute was not cleared and, when it fell to the Australian forward, Sam Kerr, she blasted it off the crossbar. It was not a sign of dominance to come but Kerr would hit the woodwork again, rattling an effort off the post around the half-hour mark. There were two changes for the visiting team at the break at the Alfredo di Stéfano Stadium, with Kirby and Charles on in place of the captain, Magda Eriksson, who was engaged in a feisty first-half battle with Athenea del Castillo, and Jessie Fleming, to boost Chelsea’s attacking options. Chelsea had lost only three of their 19 UWCL games prior to the trip to Madrid and Hayes’s charges weathered a period of Real dominance early in the second half. If there was a degree of misfortune in the goal they conceded, then there was a dose of good fortune in the leveller, which marked a shift in the game’s momentum. A ball over the top was latched on to by Reiten, who was brought down by Andrés just inside the box, and the Norwegian forward stepped up to take the spot-kick. Her effort came off the post but was deflected over the line off the back of Rodríguez who had dived the right way. Chelsea pushed for the winner that would have put them through, while Real sought to lift the pressure on next week’s tough trip to Paris. There was a chance for some redemption for Berger late on, with the goalkeeper coming out to block the effort of Olga Carmona after the full-back was played clean through on the left. Kerr was denied in stunning style late on by Misa after she was released by Reiten. Progression to the next round is still very much in Chelsea’s hands but they will have to wait a little longer before it is confirmed.