Key events
27 min: It’s a huge let-off for Manchester City, as Chelsea’s Mayra Ramirez takes advantage of a Laia Aleixandri slip to sprint in behind their defence in a one-on-one with Ayaka Yamashita. She takes the ball around the City goalkeeper but with defenders rushing back to provide cover can only shoot into the side-netting. She should have done a lot better.
26 min: Meidema plays the ball out wide to Kerstin Caspiraj, who is unable to get a cross in and forced backwards by Chelsea left-back Sandy Baltimore. City regroup and Leila Ouahabi gets a cross into the Chelsea penalty area, where Baltimore clears.
23 min: Roord and Macario combine down the middle for Chelsea, with the latter playing the ball out left into the path of Lauren James. Her shot from a narrowish angle is straight at City goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita, who makes her first save of the match.
20 min: Bunny shaw has a shot blocked on the edge of the Chelsea penalty area and City win another corner. It’s taken short by Ouahabi to Aoba Fujino, who links up with Yui Hasagawa. Fujino’s shot is on target but capably dealt with by Hannah Hampton, as City continue to pile the pressure on Chelsea in the hope of recovering from that early setback.
19 min: Unmarked on the edge of the Chelsea penalty area, Jill Roord unleashes a low shot which Hannah Hampton turns around her post for another Manchester City corner.
18 min: A soft-shoe shuffle from Bunny Shaw, who shoots on the half-turn from the edge of the Chelsea penalty area. Millie Bright deflects her shot away for another corner, which is cleared by Nathalie Bjorn.
16 min: Millie Bright plays an excellent long diagonal ball from deep to Johanna Rytting Kaneyrd out by the right touchline and the winger’s take-down is excellent. Her cross isn’t as good and she fails to pick out a teammate. City clear their lines.
14 min: Bunny Shaw wins a free-kick just outside the left side of the Chelsea penalty area on the back of a late lunge by Lucy Bronze. It’s a set-piece in a good position for City but Leila Ouahabi’s delivery is atrocious.
13 min: After good work up the middle from Catarina Macario, a Lucy Bronze cross from the right into the Manchester City penalty area is hacked clear by Gracie Prior.
11 min: Bunny Shaw takes down a pass from deep and advances towards the Chelsea goal, closely marked by Nathalie Bjorn. The City striker is unable to shake off the Chelsea defender and runs the ball out of play for a goal-kick.
10 min: Chelsea’s opening goal survives a VAR check for offside.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Man City (Ramirez 8)
Chelsea lead! It’s against the run of play but Chelsea score the first goal. Mayra Ramirez latches on to a through ball from Lauren James but is denied by Ayaka Yamashita, who stands tall in the one-on-one. The ball cannons off a defender and rebounds into the path of Ramirez, who is able to walk it into the net.
7 min: City have started well and win their first corner of the game after good work from Vivianne Miedema. Leila Ouahabi’s delivery is an inswinger off her left foot but Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton plucks the ball from the sky.
6 min: Now Lucy Bronze is called upon to clear a City delivery into the Chelsea box, where Fowler was lurking with intent.
5 min: Sandy Baltimore clears a Mary Fowler cross towards the far post from the left with her head as Chelsea repel Manchester City’s first attack of note in this final.
2 min: Bunny Shaw requires medical attention after the first of what could be many collisons with Chelsea centre-back Millie Bright over the next two weeks. The City striker has hurt her knee but is OK to continue.
1 min: The pitch at Pride Park is a little threadbare, as Johanna Rytting Kaneryd darts up the inside left before trying to sidefoot the ball into the path of Mayra Ramirez. Manchester City intercept and clear.
Chelsea v Manchester City is go …
1 min: Following a moment’s silence for Poppy Atkinson, a 10-year-old Manchester United fan who was killed in a tragic accident while playing football in Cumbria last week, Manchester City get the ball rolling. Their players are in all burgundy kit, while Chelsea’s wear blue shirts and short, with qwhite socks.
Not long now: Referee Emily Heaslip and her team of match officials lead the players of both sides out on to the Pride Park pitch, where they line up for the last of the pre-match formalities, including the national anthem. Millie Bright and Laia Aleixandri are the skippers.
Sonia Bompastor: “We are ready”
“I will be the most happy person if we win on Saturday but just for my players and for the club,” said the Chelsea head coach. “The game is an opportunity for the club to grab the first trophy. We said from the beginning of the season, we want to be in every competition in a position where we can fight for titles. It’s a really important moment for the club. I’m expecting Nick to be able to bring some positive energy to City, but we are ready.”
Nick Cushing: “We’ve got to embrace it”
“In the previous teams I had [at City], there were great people,” said the club’s interim manager in the build-up to today’s game. “I met this team this week and it is exactly the same.
“They are really good people with a real hunger to continue to win. I’ve been able to take these moments in my stride. The next four games are the ultimate challenge for our group, so we’ve got to embrace it and attack it.”
Chelsea: While she won’t play today, star striker Sam Kerr has been included in Chelsea’s squad for the Women’s Champions League knock-out rounds in an indication she is nearing a return from injury. Jack Snape reports …
Chelsea v Manchester City line-ups
Chelsea: Hampton; Bronze, Bright, Björn, Baltimore; Nüsken, Cuthbert, Macario; Rytting Kaneryd, Ramirez, James
Subs: Spencer, Lawrence, Charles, Jean-Francois, Brown, Kaptein, Hamano, Beever-Jones, Fishel.
Man City: Yamashita; Casparij, Prior, Aleixandri, Ouahabi; Hasegawa, Roord, Miedema, Fujino, Shaw, Fowler.
Subs: Keating, Layzell, Coombs, Wienroither, Kerolin, Park, Blindkilde Brown, Oyama, Murphy.
Faye Carruthers is joined by commentary box legend and national treasure Robyn Cowan, and Guardian writers Suzanne Wrack and Tom Garry to discuss Gareth Taylor’s exit from Manchester City and today’s Subway Women’s League Cup Final, among other topics. You can listen here and if you’re not already a subscriber, where have you been?!?!?! Sign up for free wherever you get your podcasts.
Today’s match officials
Bompastor’s seamless Chelsea transition
Chelsea: History has all too often illustrated that when a leader departs a sporting dynasty it is a far from easy adjustment; that it will take a little time to regroup and recalibrate. For Chelsea, however, the transition from Emma Hayes’s decade-long reign to new beginnings under Sonia Bompastor appears to have caused barely a ripple. Words: Sophie Downey.
Early team news
Chelsea’s star striker and long-term absentee, Sam Kerr, is in the late stages of her recovery from a ruptured ACL but remains unavailable. She is fast approaching a return and has been named in her side’s Champions League squad for the remainder of the tournament. The club’s record-breaking signing Naomi Girma is also out with a calf injury she suffered on her Chelsea debut a fortnight ago. Maelys Mpome, Guro Reiten, Mia Fishel and Keira Walsh are also sidelined.
Manchester City’s German international centre-back Rebecca Knaak is out with a hamstring injury, but winger Aoba Fujino could return after recovering from a foot problem. Long term absentees Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp are also out as they continue their recoveries from serious knee injuries. Greenwood has abandoned the tedium of life on the stationary bike for training on the grass, but Hemp is a little further behind in her recovery.
Women’s League Cup final: Chelsea v Manchester City
Welcome one and all. You join us at the beginning of quite the twoodyssey and what will be the first of four games in a row between Chelsea and Manchester City across three different competitions over the next 12 days.
It is a remarkable quirk of both circumstances and the calendar and if the hoary old saw that familiarity breeds contempt is correct, the players from both sides will completely sick of the sight of each other once they’ve contested today’s League Cup final, followed by both legs of a Champions League quarter-final either side of a WSL encounter.
Unbeaten this season under Sonia Bompastor, Chelsea are fighting on four fronts at home and abroad but today’s match represents their first chance to win silverware since their French head coach filled the extremely big boots vacated by Emma Hayes at the end of last season. The succession plan could scarcely have gone more seamlessly but as we approach the business end of the season, Manchester City have the opportunity to throw multiple spanners in the currently purring Chelsea works.
Installed as interim head coach at Manchester City until the end of the season following the dismissal of Gareth Taylor on Monday, Nick Cushing will be hoping to provide a new manager bounce and could get off to a flyer by winning a final in his first game in charge. He has form in the field of acquiring silverware with Manchester City, having won the WSL, two League Cups and an FA Cup during a previous seven-year reign at the club that ended in 2020. Kick-off at Pride Park is at 12.15pm (GMT) but we’ll have team news and build-up in the meantime.
