Chelsea produced a fightback worthy of the Women’s Super League title they are on course to winning, to beat a Manchester City side that will feel aggrieved about a particularly controversial first-half incident.
The Chelsea midfielder Erin Cuthbert won a thrilling game with a late header that sent the away fans into raptures. Long before that decisive moment, however, City were understandably baffled and frustrated after Jess Park expertly curled the ball into the top corner from just outside the penalty area only to realise the referee, Kirsty Dowle, had stopped play for a free-kick, moving to blow her whistle just as Park was connecting with her shot.
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A goal at that stage would have put City 2-0 up after Kerolin’s strike on 32 minutes and seemingly on course for victory. Instead, Chelsea survived and emerged after the break a completely different team, presumably after a few choice words from Sonia Bompastor, who had looked distinctly unimpressed by her team’s first-half display.
The defending champions levelled as Aggie Beever-Jones met Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s cutback and supplied a quality finish into the bottom corner, and what followed over the subsequent 15 minutes was nothing short of an onslaught from Chelsea as they raced forward relentlessly with attack after attack and Rytting Kaneryd began to dominate the contest.
Quite how Chelsea did not score in that spell of pressure was unclear to everybody except perhaps the City goalkeeper Khiara Keating. First, she produced a terrific diving save to her left to keep out Wieke Kaptein’s effort and then, even when she looked beaten, she saw Rytting Kaneryd’s tight-angled strike hit the outside of the post. Keating then did superbly well to make a low save at her feet and divert Kaneryd’s effort narrowly wide. Keating’s third fine save came when she stopped another close-range Kaptein effort.
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Keating would go on to make another top-class save low to her left to keep out a powerful Lauren James strike in the closing stages before Chelsea’s pressure told in stoppage time as Cuthbert’s header won the game for the visitors.
Kerolin, who made a big impact in Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against the same opponents, was a nightmare for Chelsea’s left-back Niamh Charles in the first half, repeatedly getting in behind the England international with her pace and energy. The Brazil forward also forced Hannah Hampton into a low save early on before opening the scoring with a goal that will surely make Manchester City’s end-of-season highlights reel. Twisting and weaving in front of a retreating Millie Bright, Kerolin eventually placed the ball through the defender’s legs and into the far corner.
Shortly afterwards, Kerolin was running straight at Bright again. This time Bright did make a challenge, fouling the 25-year-old just inside the D, and as the ball rolled straight to Park for a first-time shot, Dowle brought her whistle to her lips to award a free-kick, much to the bewilderment of Park, the City manager, Nick Cushing, and almost everybody inside this stadium.
