REWIND: Chelsea ace Kirby dazzles as Blues beat Gunners to lift Women’s FA Cup

This weekend sees the long-awaited 2019/2020 Vitality Women’s FA Cup final take place at Wembley as Everton face Manchester City.

FA Women’s Super League Full-Time take a look back at the 2018 final as Chelsea faced all-time record trophy winners Arsenal in-front of a record crowd of over 45,000 at the national stadium.

Chelsea headed across London to Wembley Stadium on the verge of being declared FA Women’s Super League 1 champions while Arsenal were looking to collect a second domestic trophy of the season after lifting the FA Women’s Continental Tyres Cup.

Emma Hayes’ Chelsea side started the match the better of the two sides with Fran Kirby seeing an effort deflected off target before Ramona Bachmann drilled a low shot wide across goal. At the other end, Vivianne Miedema fired an effort straight at Chelsea defender Hannah Blundell when in a good position to score as a first half containing few clear-cut chances ended goalless.

Chelsea broke the deadlock three minutes after the break when Kirby played in Bachmann to drive the ball high into the roof of the Arsenal net.

It was soon 2-0 to The Blues when Bachmann again picked up a Kirby pass and caused havoc down the right before cutting in and striking an effort on goal which took a deflection and looped into the net.

Arsenal reduced the arrears with 17 minutes remaining when Miedema steered the ball home on the turn but The Gunners’ renewed hopes soon turned to dust when Kirby curled in a stunning third goal for Chelsea from the edge of the box.

The victory saw Chelsea collect the Women’s FA Cup trophy for the second time while they went on to complete a league and cup double by lifting the FA Women’s Super League 1 title just 10 days’ later.

About The Author

Daniel Pentland

I am the editor and owner of the WSL Full-Time brand which I launched in 2018.

I am an accredited journalist with the FWA, SJA and AIPS. I have reported from various levels of men’s and women’s elite football since 2016.

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