On a day like today one hundred years ago, the English Football Association (FA) banned women’s football competitions. Today in front of almost 41,000 fans at Wembley, Chelsea completed the domestic quadruple after beating Arsenal 0-3 in the women’s FA Cup final.
The final marked the end of the 200/21 season which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the 2021/22 competition already in the third round.
Fran Kirby opened the scoring inside two minutes on their way to a third FA Cup triumph.
Despite Kerr missing a number of good chances to double Chelsea’s lead, in the 57th minute, however, the Kerrby show unfolded as Kerr finally found the back of the net, latching onto a fine pass from Kirby to double the Blues lead.
The Australian was once again on the scoresheet after she’s fed through on the right by Melanie Leupolz but didn’t appear to have much of an angle to shoot but saw Zinsberger off her line and executed a delightful chip. A performance well orchestrated and worthy of player of the match award in her first-ever FA Cup final.
Against a side who had beaten them earlier this season in the league, the Emma Hayes’ side finally get revenge on Jonas Eidevall’s side and inflict Arsenal’s first domestic loss of the season.
Emma Hayes’ side are celebrating a historic treble, having already lifted both the WSL title and the League Cup last season.
The celebrations cannot last too long for Chelsea, who host Juventus on Wednesday.
What they say:
Emma Hayes: “I’m extremely proud of everyone in our organisation. Our performance was out of this world today, we were dominant from start to finish. I was upset we weren’t up by more than one at half-time but it was convincing in the end. That’s the best performance I’ve seen from Fran [Kirby], she ran the show. The midfield was set up to do a job and allow Fran and Sam [Kerr] to go and play. It’s nice to paint Wembley blue tonight. It’s a Chelsea day. The fans deserve that. Winning the treble is an amazing achievement and I will sit down and enjoy that this evening. Women’s football was banned 100 years ago. I said to the girls before the game: today we play for everyone who’s made the women’s game what it is. Women’s football is out livelihood but it’s also our passion and today that win was for every woman who’s been involved in women’s football in this country.”
Sam Kerr: “I think we deserved it. Me and Fran scored but the defence was amazing, it was a team effort and we’ll enjoy this one. We felt like we dominated but they defended well in the first half and we couldn’t put away some easy chances so we knew we had to score again to put the game to bed, and we did…We’ve conceded not many goals in the last few games and scored a bunch – I think we’re the best team in England.”
Fran Kirby: “It’s amazing. We worked so hard after the international break so make sure we got it tactically right. Second half we sat off a little bit more but I think we blew them away first half especially. My goal settled our nerves a little bit. When you’re through on goal its a stressful situation but I managed to stay composed and put it in but it was a magnificent performance from everyone – keeping a clean sheet in the final is amazing…It’s a massive day for women’s football. Today was about not forgetting the trailblazers who helped us get here. Hopefully the performance today made everyone proud and hopefully more people want to get involved in women’s football.”
Humbling day for Arsenal, whose next game is against the European champions Barcelona. But they are still top of the WSL.
MOLATsportgist 