Birmingham City and Chelsea will be hoping to reach the last four of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup when they contest their quarter-final tie at St Andrew’s this evening.
Both teams come into the contest with differing fortunes, Birmingham City have lost three out of three this season while Chelsea were 6-1 winners at Manchester United on Sunday.
Ahead of the match, FAWSL Full-Time have been looking at the statistics surrounding the tie and here are four facts which relate to Birmingham City’s fixture with Chelsea.
Birmingham City have failed to score in four
Birmingham City go into their latest meeting with Chelsea having failed to score in each of their last four games against The Blues. You have to go back to January 2019 for Birmingham City’s last goals against Chelsea. With just one goal scored in three matches so far this season, the prospects of a Birmingham City goal this evening don’t look particularly strong, although they will be hoping for some cup magic.
The hosts should be cautious of the threats of Guro Reiten and Beth England
Both Guro Reiten and Beth England have been directly involved in the creation of goals in three of the last four meetings between Birmingham City and Chelsea. Reiten has scored two and assisted one in her side’s last four against the Blues while England has netted three and created three. The pair simply love playing against Birmingham City.
Lucy Quinn is the sole survivor
Lucy Quinn is the only surviving member of the Birmingham City squad which won 3-2 at Kingsmeadow in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League in 2019. Even then, she has since played for Tottenham Hotspur before returning to her previous club this summer. Quinn netted the second of Birmingham City’s three goals in their most recently victory over Chelsea. Sadly, she is ineligible to feature this evening.
Goals have been equally shared across two halves
The last five meetings between the two sides have provided 20 goals. The number of goals scored in each half is identical with 10 coming in the first half and 10 in the second half. The last 15 goals scored in this fixture have come from Chelsea with Ellen White having been the last goalscorer for Birmingham City deep in second half injury time at Kingsmeadow in 2019.
The Vitality Women’s FA Cup quarter-final tie between Birmingham City and Chelsea at St Andrew’s kicks-off at 7.45pm this evening.