Manchester City 0-3 Chelsea
by Adam Millington
at the Academy Stadium

EMMA HAYES’S Chelsea secured their spot in the FA Cup final when they triumphed 3-0 over Manchester City on this afternoon.

First-half goals from Erin Cuthbert and Melanie Leupolz put the Blues on the right path from early on before Bethany England made it three in the final minute of normal time.

Without enigmatic forward Pernille Harder, who missed out on the game due to a slight thigh injury, the Blues seemed to lack a certain spark up top and seemed unlikely to pose much of a threat to City.

But City too had their absentees. On top of their already depleted squad, central defenders Alanna Kennedy and Ruby Mace were both ineligible due to their participation for other teams earlier on the competition and attacking midfielder Jill Scott had to fill in at centre-back.

And they have also had injuries between the sticks. Karima Taieb is the only remaining senior goalkeeper, usually Gareth Taylor’s third option. She has seemed uneasy at times, performing at a level below that which the team had been accustomed to when Ellie Roebuck was playing.

It was Taieb who would be at fault for the two goals in the first half. The first, perhaps, had less to do with her shortcomings. Cuthbert controlled the ball well before rifling it on the half-volley, but the keeper should have done better than to have let the Scottish winger’s effort go through her hands at the near post.

Then came the second, cementing the path that the game then looked sure to take. This time too, Taieb was not the only one at fault, with Caroline Weir’s challenge on Leupolz being rather weak; but the keeper had remained rooted to the spot and didn’t dive quickly enough to pull off what should have been a rather ordinary stop.

Chelsea’s victory was not a product of flukes, however: it was undoubtedly hard-fought and they were the better of the two sides. Taieb had fallen short for the two goals, but her quick reactions denied Cuthbert, Fran Kirby and Sam Kerr from extending the lead to one that would have more accurately reflected the London club’s dominance.

Hayes’s side were tenacious in their pressing and seemed to often get in behind the City defence, and added the icing on the cake when Bethany England connected with fellow substitute Jessie Fleming’s cross to head in a third goal.

They have now earned themselves a ticket for another date in history, a Wembley final on December 5. One hundred years since the FA effectively banned women’s football from being played in England, a footballing spectacle of such a nature is symbolic of just how much times have changed.