Women’s League Cup: Chelsea put up a five-star performance against a valiant Durham
It was an expected outcome. English champions, Chelsea Women thumped Championship side Durham Women 5-0 at Kingsmeadow in the quarter final of the Subway Women’s League Cup. But don’t let the scoreline fool you, as the visitors put up a resilient performance against the Blues, holding them at just a one goal lead for over two thirds of the game.
The opening goal came courtesy of Aggie Beever-Jones, 21 minutes into the first half, as an Ashley Lawrence cross deflected off of Durham’s Eleanor Ryan-Doyle for Beever-Jones to head it into the bottom right corner.
In the second half, Chelsea found their momentum and scored four goals in the space of 14 minutes, a goal frenzy which was kicked off in the 62nd minute by a spectacular volley from outside the box by Oriane Jean-Francois. Erin Cuthbert, Guro Reiten and Maika Hamano, then added their names to the scoresheet as well, with Hamano scoring an outrageous goal, a cross that swerved past the Durham keeper to make it 5-0 in the 76th minute.
Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor had positive words for her team’s performance, but was also quick to point out the struggles they faced in the first half of the game, stating- “If we reflect on the performance, we were not able to score really early in the game. I think we created a lot of opportunities tonight and we were not clinical enough.”
“It happens sometimes that when you create chances, you are not able to be efficient. This is probably why in the first half the game was not going the way we wanted, but my players stayed confident. We had a lot of possession of the ball and created a lot of chances.”
An impressive fortification
Durham seemed nearly impenetrable in the first half, mainly thanks to their shot stopper, Tatiana Saunders. Saunders showcased her ability and reach early on as she stopped an incredible outside the box attempt from Hamano in just the fourth minute. Despite conceding also, Saunders kept her head up and was seen even bantering with the goalscorer Beever-Jones.
Her commanding presence in goal stirred frustration amongst the Blues, who were caught offside on the three separate occasions in the first 45 minutes. All in all, Saunders made an impressive six saves, capping off an impressive defensive display from Durham that immobilized Chelsea’s blitz attacking, a play other teams in the WSL could learn from when playing the London side moving forward.
Bompastor praised Saunders after the game, stating- “She had a great performance for sure. It happens sometimes when keepers and teams play against us, they have really big motivation and they want to show you how good of players they are.”
“She put up a great performance, she made some great saves. I remember the shot from distance in the first minutes from Maika (Hamano) she saved that probably not many people will be able to do that and she made the performance harder for us.”
For the second half, Saunders was substituted off for new Canadian arrival Rylee Foster, who put up a fairly decent performance for her first minutes at Durham. However, she was at the brunt of Chelsea’s clinical finishing, conceding four goals. When asked if the substitution made a difference in their attack, Bompastor said- “The difference between the first half and the second half, during the first half, we missed chances, giving them (Durham) opportunities to stop. While in the second half, we were in the right place in the right moment”.
In it to win it all
The League Cup is a competition that has haunted Chelsea recently in their pursuit to win all competitions in a season. The Blues last won the cup in 2021, and narrowly missed out on it last season to Arsenal, thanks to an extra time winner from Stina Blackstenius.
Bompastor expressed her desire to win this competition, stating- “The League Cup is really important. It’s part of our ambitions. We want to make sure every trophy is a goal for us.”
“I told my players this competition is special because when you’re Chelsea you have the opportunity in three games to get your hands on the trophy, so we started today with a win. We made a small step to the semi-finals, and we have two more games if we want to get the trophy.”
Chelsea centre half, Maelys Mpomé commented on how to keep the momentum going forward, stating- “I feel we have a good dynamic, 5-0 today and we just have to keep going and take every game each by each and just keep going that way.”
Chelsea are set to face fellow London side, West Ham United in the semi-final of the League Cup in early February. A win will see them secure a spot in the League Cup final for the sixth season in a row, and they will be hoping to break their duck in the Pride Park Stadium in Derby on 15th March.
