In Sonia Bompastor’s first season in charge, Chelsea defeated Manchester United 3-3 in the Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley on Sunday to complete an English domestic treble.
Catarina Macario scored the west London side’s second goal with the help of Sandy Baltimore, who had already scored twice.
In the 84th minute, France international Baltimore opened the scoring from the penalty spot before Macario headed in her free-kick to make sure nothing was lost.
In the opening minute of extra time, Baltimore turned Lisa Naalsund and fired a close-range ball home. The result was Baltimore’s top goal.
As Chelsea won their sixth consecutive domestic league title after lifting the League Cup, they had already been declared the English champions, becoming the first team to remain unbeaten in a 22-game Women’s Super League campaign.
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The player of the match, Erin Cuthbert of Chelsea, told the BBC, “This kicks off a fantastic season.”
“The group is fantastic, I’m so proud of them. This has involved a lot of work. With a goal and a second goal, we were holding on a little bit to win the game, which is how we did.
There is a lot of change, but you just have to embrace it, she said, referring to how the side had changed since Bompastor’s methods.
You have to respect her because she is a manager and a winner both in terms of management and playing. Since she arrived, she has done a fantastic job. What a way to start it off with a treble!
After Emma Hayes, a long-time and successful manager, left to take over as the manager of the nation’s women’s soccer team for the United States, Bompastor assumed control of Chelsea.
But their hopes of reaching the quadruple were thwarted when they lost to Barcelona in the Women’s Champions League semifinals, which they have yet to win despite their domestic successes, 8-2 on aggregate.
The Blues dominated the first half at Wembley, but they were kept waiting for an opening goal in a crowd of over 74, 000, which included Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, the new Chelsea women’s team investor, and his tennis champion wife Serena Williams.
With the game still goalless, it appeared as though United would break up, but Celin Bizet’s poor defending forced her to step in Cuthbert and send the Scotland midfielder down, with Stacey Fullicks wasting no time awarding a penalty.
Baltimore coolly sent the United goalkeeper the wrong way from the spot despite the colossal ranks of United supporters behind the goal and some mind-bending Phallon Tullis-Joyce mental tricks.
Early in the second half, better United had chances to equalize, but Ella Toone’s absence from the starting lineup by England star failed to score.
And Macario and Baltimore’s late goals thwarted any hopes of a United victory.
Source: Channels TV
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