Chelsea 3-1 West Ham
By Freya Ward 14/1/24
Above: Chelsea celebrate a goal over West Ham. Photo: Chelsea FC Twitter.
After a long wait for football fans across the country, the top teams in women’s football are back in action with the return of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup.
Current title holders Chelsea were looking to defend their title against visitors West Ham and that is exactly what they did although it didn’t come as easy as they would have hoped.
Chelsea lined up with Lauren James in the number nine position in the noticeable absence of super star striker Sam Kerr, who earlier this week announced that she had torn her ACL(Anterior Cruciate Ligament) whilst on a training camp with Chelsea in Morocco and will be spending the remainder of the season sidelined.
The first 10 minutes of the game were end to end with bothsides having a couple of chances at goal, each were calmly defended by the opposition.
The opening goal of the game came in the 18th minute in open play from the Hammer’s number 20, Viviane Asseyi
Chelsea seemingly came back fighting with a couple more chances, including Erin Cuthbert winning the home side a corner, unfortunately for the blues’ Eve Perriset’s set piecestruggled to connect with any of her teammates keeping the Hammer’s 1-0 up. The blues continued to fight with a Guro Reiten effort etching the crossbar in the 37th minute of play before play being pulled back for offside.
Each side was awarded a free kick in the closing minutes of the first half both Asseyi and Perriset’s efforts were saved by the goalkeepers keeping the visitors 1-0 up at the end of the first half.
Still 1-0 10 minutes into the second half Chelsea boss Emma Hayes made a triple substitution in hopes of altering Chelsea’sdisappointing fate; a notable name entering the pitch was Swedish international Nathalie Bjorn for her Chelsea debutafter signing earlier in the week from Women’s Super League side Everton.
A shift in mentality saw a narrow miss hitting the side netting from another Perisett corner, this positive run of play continued for the home side and after a difficult 69 minutes for Chelsea, super sub-Mia Fishel made it level giving the blues the glimpse of hope they needed to defend their title.
West Ham manager Rehanne Skinner made changes to her side in attempts of a positive response to Chelsea’s equaliser, but the Blues were a difficult force to reckon with after their game altering goal.
A nail-biting moment for Chelsea players and fans alike came in the 88th minute with Zeciera Musovic spilling the ball out of her hands after claiming Asseyi’s free kick, this was quickly dealt with by Chelsea’s defence, keeping their hopes of a late winner alive.
A desperate last-minute effort from James blazed over the crossbar just before the final whistle blew sending the game to extra time.
The first 10 minutes of extra time were dominated by Chelsea putting lots of pressure on West Ham’s wearing defence however, nothing was converted until the 11th minute where Cuthbert headed the ball past Mackenzie Arnold, putting Chelsea in the lead for the first time all game. Soon after, just1 minute after entering the pitch Aggie Beever-jones scored the goal that sealed Chelsea’s victory connecting onto a graceful chip, but after closer inspection the goal was awarded to Sjoeke Nusken who tapped it over the line.
The second half of extra time wasn’t as action packed as the previous half, west ham tried their hardest but Chelsea’s hard work meant that their efforts weren’t enough to see the game to penalties ending in heartbreak for the Hammers.
Teams: CHELSEA: Zecira Musovic(GK), Sophie Ingle(C), Jess Carter,Lauren James, Guro Reiten, AshleyLawrence, Fran Kirby, Eve Perriset, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Erin Cuthbert, Kadeisha Buchanan.
Substitutes used: Bjorn, Leupolz,Fishel, Nusken, Beever-Jones
Scorers: Fishel (69’), Cuthbert(100’),Nusken(105’)
WEST HAM: Mackenzie Arnold(GK)(C), Kirsty Smith, Risa Shimizu, Amber Tysiak, Emma Snerle, Riko Ueki, Shelina Zadorsky, Honoka Hayashi, Viviane Asseyi, Shannon Cooke, Katrina Gorry.
Scorers: Asseyi 18’
Substitutes used: Ziu, Denton, Harries, Ademiluyi
Referee: Emily Heaslip
Attendance: TBC
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