Nick Cushing has said Manchester City’s performance in their defeat in Saturday’s League Cup final has given him belief that they can beat Chelsea in the Women’s Champions League on Wednesday, as the two teams’ run of four consecutive meetings continues.
Manchester City lost 2-1 in Cushing’s first game back in interim charge, just five days after the sacking of Gareth Taylor, and Cushing’s team will now host Chelsea in the first leg of their European quarter-final, before a crucial league meeting at the Etihad Stadium on 23 March and then 27 March’s reverse leg of their Champions League tie.
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“I have the belief that we’re going to win on Wednesday, and with some slight adjustments and maybe some rotation, we can make sure we fall the right side of the result,” Cushing said despite the loss at Pride Park on Saturday, where Yui Hasegawa’s late own goal gave Chelsea the first major piece of silverware available this term, after he felt they had “done enough to win” the final.
“I want this team to be a threat and to believe that it can be a threat however the game goes, whoever we play. And I hope you could see we had multiple threats in their box. At half-time we were six corners to zero. I’ve seen enough to know we can be competitive in the next three games.”
Cushing led Manchester City to lifting six major trophies in a six-year spell in charge from 2014 to 2020; one league title, three League Cups and two FA Cups. Asked what differences she had noticed in Cushing’s team compared to how Manchester City played under Taylor, the Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor said: “Most of the big principles we could see under Gareth were the ones we could see today with Nick,” although she added that she expects that to change in the coming days.
Cushing felt “you could see some slight adjustments in the way we want to play, that made us more of a threat” and he added: “I thought our wingers were our main threat. Mary Fowler looked really dangerous when she got face-up and was dribbling and driving into defensive areas, and Aoba Fujino was, again, dangerous.”
Chelsea remain unbeaten under Bompastor with 26 wins from her 28 games in charge of the London club.
