On a typically cold November night at Kingsmeadow, Chelsea defeated a battling Tottenham Hotspur side 2-0 in the FA Women’s Continental League Cup to take them top of the group.
It had, as Emma Hayes pointed out, been three weeks since Chelsea had played a match and the first half of the game reflected this. The first opportunity came in the seventh minute when Angela Addison was brought down on the edge of the area and Siri Worm stepped up to take the free-kick. Her shot rattled the post as Chelsea breathed a sigh of relief.
There were few chances in the first half as Spurs defended resolutely and with Chelsea unable to find the target. As half-time approached, Millie Bright was the first player to get a shot on target but Becky Spencer was equal to the task, making a fine save. The players therefore went in at half-time without the deadlock having been broken.
Spurs started the second half brightly and after 53 minutes, Rianna Dean won the ball in the Chelsea half and passed to Rosella Ayane who shot from distance, sending the ball just wide of the Chelsea post. The hosts were soon back in the action with Sam Kerr’s header proving an easy save for Spencer.
Hayes made three changes as the game approached the hour mark, bringing in Beth England, Guro Reiten and Jessie Fleming for Kerr, Niamh Charles and Pernille Harder and it wasn’t long before Chelsea made the breakthrough. In the 70th minute, Erin Cuthbert found herself on the edge of the area and took her managers’ half-time words, that you need to shoot to score, to heart and fired a shot which flew past Spencer at her near post.
Both sides had chances in the following 10 minutes, England headed over for Chelsea whilst Ayane’s shot from close range was turned round the post by Ann-Katrin Berger. In the final minutes, of the game Chelsea doubled their lead after a hand ball in the area gave them a penalty which Melanie Leupolz dispatched into the back of the net.
Spurs will have been pleased to return to better form after their most recent game against Arsenal but again found the 70-minute mark to be problematic, though they managed to keep their shape better following the first goal in this game and did not capitulate as they have often done against the bigger sides. They turn their attention to a home game against Reading on Saturday.
When asked in a post-match interview, in which FA Women’s Super League Full-Time were present, for an update on Alex Morgan and whether he thought she would get to play for Spurs before she returned to America, Juan Amoros gave a wry smile and said “Yes, she will play.”
Chelsea will be pleased to go top of the group and to have got some game time ahead of their game against Everton on Sunday. After the match, Emma Hayes praised Spurs saying she thought they ‘were aggressive, they defended well from the front, they made it difficult’.
Speaking of the first Chelsea goal she said “It was so intricate at times in the first half that it just needed someone to pull the trigger and thank goodness Erin did that, that’s what was lacking from us.”