Chelsea win Women's League Cup after 2-1 triumph over Manchester City at Pride Park
Updated 15/03/2025 at 17:08 GMT
The Women's League Cup belongs to Chelsea after Yui Hasegawa's own goal handed them a 2-1 win over their Women's Super League rivals Manchester City. It is the first time that Chelsea have won the competition since their triumph during the 2020/21 campaign. Mayra Ramirez and Aoba Fujino scored the other goals in a fascinating fixture at Pride Park.
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Yui Hasegawa's own goal helped Chelsea win the Women's League Cup with a 2-1 triumph over Manchester City.
Mayra Ramirez gave the west London side an early lead, but Aoba Fujino got her team back on level terms with a powerful shot from distance.
The match looked to be heading for extra time until Hasegawa turned Ramirez's cross into the back of her own net with 13 minutes remaining.
City needed an equaliser, but Chelsea held on to win the tournament for the first time since the 2020/21 campaign.
The trophy stands as Sonia Bompastor's first piece of silverware since taking charge of Chelsea last summer, and is the first strike towards their hopes of securing the quadruple in the former Lyon manager's debut season in charge.
"I'm really happy," Bompastor said. "I just said before the game that the most important thing is to bring a trophy to the club.
"From the beginning of the season, we said we are really ambitious and when you have the opportunity to win a first title, that's always really positive.
"I'm really proud of my players today. The performance was maybe not a great one but we found a way to win the game."
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Manchester City controlled the opening five minutes of the match, but Chelsea responded with a goal out of nowhere.
Lauren James produced a phenomenal pass in behind the City defence, and Ramirez latched onto it to go one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
The Colombian's first effort forced an excellent stop from Ayaka Yamashita, but the ball rebounded off Laia Aleixandri's leg and back into the Chelsea forward's path.
Ramirez made no mistake the second time around, stroking the ball into an empty net to give her side the lead in the eighth minute.
City went on the hunt for an equaliser as Leila Ouahabi forced an excellent stop from Hannah Hampton with a shot from the edge of the box.
Hampton reacted quickly to deny Fujino moments later, but it should have been 2-0 in the 26th minute.
Ramirez burst through on goal, only to blast the ball into the side netting after dribbling round Yamashita in the City goal.
Bunny Shaw tried to lob Hampton from distance after a quiet start to the second half, but her attempt went wide of the goal.
City were rewarded for an impressive performance at Pride Park in the 64th minute when Fujino drove into the box before firing a thunderous shot into the top-right corner to make it 1-1.
Fujino turned provider four minutes later to put Shaw through on goal. However, Hampton got off her line quickly to make the save.
Hampton was called into action once again to stop Vivianne Miedema's long-range shot from finding the bottom-right corner.
Then Chelsea ruthlessly restored their lead in the 76th minute via an own goal from Hasegawa.
The City midfielder turned Ramirez's superb cross into the top-left corner of her own net after the forward's excellent run down the right wing.
That appeared to take the wind out of City's sails, with Chelsea holding on to lift the trophy.
Speaking after the match, both Bompastor and Chelsea captain Millie Bright were critical of the playing surface at Pride Park - suggesting the pitch was not up to standard for a cup final.
"It's a bit of a shame to have this pitch for the final especially when you expect England to have the best pitches in the world," Bompastor said.
"I'm not sure if it was a men's final it would be the same, so we just need to make sure we have the best facilities for us to play the games."
Bright, meanwhile, said: "I think it's an amazing stadium. We were really lucky to be playing it here and it was really nice but I think when you come to a final, you do expect a lot more quality from the pitch.
"It is disappointing. It's a massive game, a massive, massive cup final. I think you can see the state of the pitch, which I'm guessing was not too good on TV either, but it kind of disrupts the game a little bit as well."
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