Mayra Ramirez’s goal and an own-goal by Yui Hasegawa secured Chelsea’s victory in the first of four highly anticipated clashes with Manchester City, setting the stage for a rivalry that will dominate English women’s football in the coming weeks.
So, the quadrilogy everyone’s been talking about for weeks has begun. Chelsea and Manchester City will meet 4 times in the next two weeks, and this, ironically, was probably the least important of them. The Subway League Cup Final has traditionally been considered the poor relation of women’s football cup competitions in England, but nobody told the 14,000 people on a sunny March Saturday in Pride Park that. A noisy atmosphere was highlighted by the striking visual of Man City’s sea of blue flags against the black and white colours of the seats on a glorious day, contrasted by the solemnity and sadness the women’s game has experienced recently, marked in an impeccably observed minute’s silence for Poppy Atkinson before kickoff.
After the silence, a roar greeted the two teams as they went into battle for the first time in a four-game series that will possibly define both their seasons.
Full-blooded was perhaps an understatement to describe the tackles flying in early – both attacking focal points (Mayra Ramirez for Chelsea and Bunny Shaw for Man City) were left crumpled on the turf by their opposing centre-backs – Millie Bright flattening Shaw in particular caused real concern before she was up again after treatment.
After several probing attacks from both sides, Chelsea got the early breakthrough they wanted after 9 minutes. Lauren James received the ball in a pocket of space and slid a gorgeous slide-rule of a pass through to Mayra Ramirez, whose initial shot was saved by Ayane Yamashita but ricocheted back to her off a covering defender to prod home from a yard out – although the obligatory VAR check had to be sat through before it was confirmed.
The next ten minutes saw Chelsea attempt to seize control, but Man City resisted as Shaw began to find her range, bullying her way through for a corner for one notable chance as the Cityzens forced a succession of corners. An exchange of passes between Kerstin Casparij, Viv Miedema and Shaw led to another Shaw chance…a Fujino and Hasegawa one-two was gorgeous in its telepathic understanding between the two international teammates, but ultimately led to nothing.
Man City were finding joy with crosses from the flank, with Shaw clearly unsettling the Chelsea defence with space to run, but it was Chelsea who made the best chance of the game so far on half an hour – a GORGEOUS long pass finding Ramirez for Chelsea all alone against Laia Aleixandri – going through like a freight train, rounding the keeper…and unable to finish.
The next 15 minutes saw the game settle into a rhythm of thrust and counter-thrust on a deteriorating pitch, though Emily Heaslip made her presence felt with a few interesting decisions – one seeming elbow on Erin Cuthbert a standout, although the first yellow card was a somewhat soft one for an Aleixandri tackle, but nothing of real note happened as Chelsea went into half time with the lead..
The second half started quietly…but your correspondent has a confession to make. When Lucy Bronze went down in the box shortly after the restart, I shouted “Penalty!” in the press box, thereby breaking a journalistic rule of “don’t commit to a decision until you’ve seen the replay” for what was…put kindly, a bit of gamesmanship from the experienced fullback, for which she received a yellow card. A few sighting shots followed as tackles began flying in…one cruncher from Bunny Shaw on Cuthbert earned the Jamaican striker a yellow also.
Then came three minutes that changed the game into a true contest – and it was Man City’s Japanese contingent who heralded the Rising Sun for Man City’s cup hopes – Ayane Yamashita first making an incredible close-range stop from Johanna Rytting Kaneryd before Aoba Fujino picked up the ball on the right, cut inside and fired a strike that bent like a katana’s blade past Hampton on 63 minutes. Man City were in the ascendancy now and loose play from Lucy Bronze was oh-so-nearly punished by Bunny Shaw – Hampton flying off her line to stop it.
At this point Sonia Bompastor had clearly seen enough, bringing on Maika Hamano and Aggie Beever Jones for Rytting Kaneryd and Cat Macario. The subs made an instant impact but it was two starters who forced their side back into the lead as Lucy Bronze raced down the right side, fed Ramirez and her cross was deflected in off Yui Hasegawa, cruelly, for Chelsea to regain the lead on 77 minutes.
Nick Cushing then introduced Jess Park and Kerolin as City attempted to find an equaliser.
Chelsea settled down to try and kill the game, with City only able to muster long-range efforts…although Yamashita taking a touch to knock it past Beever-Jones bearing down on her was brave with moments to go. A wasteful long-range strike was greeted with an anguished scream of “NO! NO!” from behind us in the press box as the tension was too much for some.
The final whistle was greeted almost anticlimactically, somehow – it gave the sense of “job done” rather than a genuine celebration, which perhaps says something about the League Cup. But with only five days until the two teams renew hostilities and arguably bigger games to come, Sonia Bompastor’s first Chelsea trophy may be more valuable as a psychological weapon than what it actually means. The Blues have been so near yet so far with the League Cup the past few years and now that relatively minor monkey is off their back. Is it a preview of the far bigger one that is their quest for a UWCL title?
The next ten days will have a big say in showing that.
Nick Cushing (Manchester City): “I want this team to be a threat and believe it can be a threat whoever we play. I thought we had multiple moments in the game. I’ve seen enough to believe we can cause problems in the next three games”
“The wingers were our best players today. I thought Aoba Fujino and Mary Fowler were superb”
“I don’t think Chelsea have anything we don’t have. I have huge respect for them as a good team but we’re a good team too, and I think we can win on Wednesday.”
“I see a hunger in the players’ eyes. We’re not where we want to be right now, but for us it’s about gaining the belief we can. Minimum for us now is UWCL qualification”
“We need to forget this game now. We can’t do anything about it. We take the good stuff from here into Wednesday, and we rely on the big players who are used to big games”
Sonia Bompastor: “I’m really pleased to win my first trophy as Chelsea manager. In terms of confidence, it’s really positive, and it wasn’t the greatest performance but it was a good one”
“It’s a shame for the women’s game to have a pitch like this for a final. We’re supposed to have the best pitches in the world in England, but we don’t here. I doubt it would have been like that for the men’s game.”
“We need to make sure we enjoy today. I’ll celebrate with the players and my family on the way back, but we have a quick turnaround. I’ll be celebrating at the end of the season, and hopefully we can have more than one trophy”
“We can win four trophies. Every time we step on the pitch we put our heart in, but there are fine margins”