The current FA Cup holders against the previous winners was a cagey affair, as both teams looked for a return to Wembley.
It took almost every minute of the 95 played to break through, as in the third minute of added time, Eriksson failed to deal with Demi Stokes‘ cross and sliced the ball into her own net, sending City to Wembley!
What happened
There were only a few chances in the first half - but they were good ones!
Karen Bardsley pulled off a wonderful save to stop the visitors taking the lead a quarter of an hour into the game. After Ramona Bachmann squared the ball to Fran Kirby, the Chelsea forward was in on goal, but the City ‘keeper stood her ground before blocking Kirby’s shot with her foot.
Skipper Steph Houghton was one of eight of the City side that won the FA Cup to start for Nick Cushing‘s team today. In the 35th minute, she leapt highest to head the ball to Tessa Wullaert, who in turn found Georgia Stanway. The City number 12 span and made room for a shot, but just couldn’t find the target.
The best chance of the half came just a minute later, when Nikita Parris took advantage of a mix up in the Chelsea defence and managed to take the ball round Ann-Katrin Berger before taking a shot from a tight angle which agonisingly rolled across the face of the goal.
We’d won our three previous FA Cup games this season by three goals to nil on each occasion, but the feeling feeling going into the break was that this game wasn’t going to be a goal fest.
With a quarter of an hour left in the game, Chelsea hit the woodwork twice. Erin Cuthbert whipped in a dangerous free kick for Kirby to latch onto with a diving header. She hit the bar, and a few minutes later it was Cuthbert’s turn to have an effort on goal. Sophie Ingle played a deft chipped across the City box and Cuthbert’s low effort hit the near post.
As the game opened up in the final stages, we started to find more joy in behind the Chelsea defence. Janine Beckie replaced Caroline Weir and her fresh legs started causing problems for the visitors.
In the 93rd minute, City broke forward through Parris. She played the ball out wide Stokes, who’s cross curled towards the Chelsea back post. Eriksson attempted to clear the danger, but instead sliced the ball into her own net for City to take a late lead!
How we lined up
Bardsley started in goal, shielded by a back four of Abbie McManus, Jen Beattie, Houghton and Stokes. Keira Walsh and Jill Scott were the deeper of our four midfielders with Wullaert and Weir, as Parris and Stanway led the line.
Up next
We host Yeovil in league action on the 28th of April, before heading to Wembley to face West Ham in the FA Cup final!
