Chelsea win Women’s League Cup final after own goal denies Manchester City | OneFootball

It seems as though nothing can stop Sonia Bompastor in English football. Not a change of manager from Manchester City, not a sublime individual goal from Aoba Fujino and not even the sand on the pitch. The Frenchwoman is unbeaten as Chelsea manager after 28 games and has secured the first of a potential quadruple this season.

Chelsea’s 26th victory of the season was played on a surface their midfielder Erin Cuthbert told the BBC was not fit for a final and Bompastor, who clearly had higher hopes for the facilities in her first experience of a final in English football, agreed. “That’s a bit of a shame to have this pitch for a final, especially in England where you expect to have the best pitches in the world,” she said. “I’m not sure if it was a men’s final it would be the same.”

This was the 14th edition of the modern-day Women’s League Cup final and the first final, staged just down the road at Burton Albion’s supposedly inferior Pirelli Stadium, was played on a significantly better quality surface. Rachel Brown-Finnis, the former England goalkeeper who is now a TV pundit, called the surface substandard.

Derby directed inquiries towards Women’s Professional Leagues Limited, whose stance appeared to be that they had identified a venue that would have the appropriate resources to produce a high standard of pitch.

Nick Cushing clearly had no intention of using it as an excuse for Manchester City’s defeat, the interim head coach saying he thought the surface would be better at their own Joie Stadium on Wednesday. The two sides meet in the second of an unusual run of four consecutive games against each another.

Cushing was taking charge of his first game back at the club five days after the sacking of Gareth Taylor and City did cause Chelsea plenty of problems. At multiple points in the first half especially, Chelsea were under the cosh as crosses bombarded their penalty area.

But Yui Hasegawa inadvertently hooked into her own net 13 minutes from time when trying to deal with Mayra Ramírez’s right-wing cross and that decided the contest. This was after a superb, swerving strike from Hasegawa’s Japan teammate Fujino, which had Hannah Hampton well beaten at her near post, brought City level in the second half.

Ramírez, a handful throughout, opened the scoring early in the first half when she broke clear on the counterattack and was able to score on the rebound after her initial strike was saved by Ayaka Yamashita. The Colombian had a glorious chance to make it 2-0 but fired wide after rounding the goalkeeper in a first half that required Chelsea to produce gutsy, last-ditch defending.

In the second half, Hampton produced a fine save to thwart Khadija Shaw in a one-on-one and held on to a left-foot Vivianne Miedema effort but despite Chelsea not being at their best they still maintained their winning habits.

“The performance was maybe not a great one but we found a way to win the game,” Bompastor said. “I know this team has more than what we showed today.”

Regardless of whether or not this was a pretty Chelsea display, Lucy Bronze’s strength was evident throughout and the England right-back was crucial to the move that led to the winning goal, battling down the right before the deadly cross was supplied by Ramírez.

That secured the first trophy of the year for a team well on course to adding the league title, as well as being in the FA Cup semi-finals and Europe’s last eight.

“We know we are in a really decisive moment of the season and we know every game will be important,” Bompastor said. “This is our mindset.

“We want to make sure we grab as many trophies as we can, knowing it will be really difficult. I will celebrate the most at the end of the season and hopefully we’ll have more than one trophy.”

Chelsea were competing in this final for the sixth season in a row, but had been the runners-up on three consecutive occasions. It was starting to feel it was the one domestic trophy proving elusive for them. But not under Bompastor.

Header image: [Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA]