Chelsea Ladies Won Women’s FA Cup
Chelsea
Ladies won the Women's FA Cup for the first time in their history by beating
Notts County Ladies 1-0 in the final at Wembley.
The
decisive moment came eight minutes before half-time, when player of the match,
Eniola Aluko, caused panic in the Notts County defence, driving into the box
before finding the run of Ji So-Yun.
South
Korea midfielder, and current PFA Women's Player of the Year, Ji duly made
history by instinctively poking the ball into the net, to score the winning
goal in the first Women's FA Cup final to be played at the national stadium.
Despite a
minor County resurgence in the second half, Chelsea were comfortable and
deserved winners of the game, which was played in front of 30,710 fans.
But it
took until the half-hour mark for them to create the first real chance of the
game, when Aluko's pace and guile
effective throughout put her in
behind the Notts defence and beyond 'keeper Carly Telford.
But the England international could only hit
the side-netting from a tight angle.
Five
minutes later, Aluko did hit the target after cleverly carving out some space
just inside the penalty area before unleashing a stinging strike directly at
Telford.
County
had barely seen another touch of the ball before Aluko ghosted into the box once
more, this time, whipping a teasing cross from the left on to the stretched leg
of Gemma Davison, whose volley flew inches wide of the post.
A
relentless, 10-minute spell from Chelsea and Aluko finally produced the goal
they deserved when the 28-year-old jinked into the area and played in Ji, who
could not miss from close range following a fortunate rebound off Telford.
Notts
manager, Rick Passmoor, was forced to make changes, although few expected him to
replace England forward Rachel Williams with Dunia Susi after just 10 minutes
of the second half.
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