Above: Chelsea Women celebrating Mayra Ramirez’s goal against Crystal Palace via Chelsea Women Website 12/02/24. Photo: @ChelseaFCW
By Maisie Mcnulty 12/02/24
In the fifth round, Chelsea, the current FA Cup champions, faced up against one of the teams vying for the Women’s Championship title, Crystal Palace. But the Blue and red eagles made sure they gave it their all, right up until the final whistle.
Initially, Lauren James was set to start however in a post-match interview with Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, it was said that Lauren James was ill yesterday and therefore Hayes decided not to risk it, especially with their upcoming fixture against Manchester City. Therefore Fran Kirby replaced Lauren James in the Blues starting line up.
Laura Kaminski’s side opted for a defensive formation of a 5-4-1 which was to be expected whilst going up against the five-time winner of the FA Cup, Chelsea. In the upfront position for Crystal Palace was no other than the current Women’s championship top goalscorer, Elise Hughes.
Fran Kirby had the opening chance of the game in the fifth minute as she popped a half-volley on the edge of the area which was just an inch too high causing the ball to land on the top of the goal.
It was a quiet start with Chelsea having more possession of the ball but Crystal Palace’s strong defensive back line denying the Blues of any chances they got. In the 11th minute, Crystal Palace had their first attempt of the match as Shanade Hopcroft took a right-footed shot at the goal, but missed to the far right.
In the 23’ minute it was a battle of the captains as Aimee Everett was shown a yellow card after a bad foul on the Blues captain, Niamh Charles.
Johanna Rytting Kaneryd committed a soft foul on Elise Hughes in the 31st minute winning Crystal Palace a free kick a couple of feet outside the area. Shanade Hopcroft fired the ball into the box but it just couldn’t find her teammates meaning it rolled out for Chelsea’s goal kick.
Although there were many close attempts by Chelsea including a narrow miss by Mayra Ramirez, after a brilliant cross from Niamh Charles, that went just high. As the whistle blew to indicate the end of the first half the scoreboards stayed the same with Chelsea Women 0, Crystal Palace 0.
As the second half began there was no changes made to the players and the performance, with both teams keeping up their strong form. In the 55’ minute Erin Cuthbert crossed the ball in from the corner to reach Jess Carter’s head in the middle of the box but it breezed above the crossbar.
In the 56’ minute Laura Kaminski made a double substitution, as well as Emma Hayes made two substitutions in the 62’ minute in hopes that a goal would come through soon. The attempts just kept on rolling for Mayra Ramirez as she took a shot with her right foot which was strongly blocked by Demi Lambourne in the 63’ minute.
One of Palace’s first attempts of the second half was blocked by Hannah Hampton as Abbie Larkin headed it straight into Hampton’s hands. After a positive run of play by Chelsea, Mayra Ramirez took another attempt at goal in the 74’ minute but it was just a touch too high as it bounced off the crossbar and back into play.
With the last quarter of the match remaining, in the 75’ – 79’ minute we saw a triple substitution for the Eagles and another substitution for the Blues.
Within seconds of restarting the game, in the 81’ minute, we saw a sublime goal from Mayra Ramirez as Ashley Lawrence crossed it into the box, leading to an outrageous finish of a backheel flick which put the ball in the back of the net.
Even after a total of 8 added minutes, unfortunately for Palace, it was Mayra Ramirez’s goal that sealed Chelsea’s win progressing the Blues into yet another quarter-final within the FA Cup.
Chelsea: Hampton, Carter, Leupolz, Kirby, Reiten, Lawrence, Rytting Kaneryd, Charles (C), Cuthbert, Ramirez, Bjorn Substitutes: Ingle, Nusken (62’), James, Hamano, Beever-Jones (62’), Buchanan, Perisset, Cankovic
Scorers: Mayra Ramirez 79’
Crystal Palace: Lambourne, Gibbons, Arthur, Everett ©, Sibley, Sharpe, Hughes, Reilly, Nolan, Percival, Hopcroft Substitutes: Johnson, Filbey (80’), Blanchard (57’), Guyatt (75’), Dennis (75’), Larkin (56’), Atkinson
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