That’s all from me. Bye!
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Gareth Taylor looks a little bit disappointed:
I’m a little bit disappointed. We’re still unbeaten at home. We needed to win tonight, we knew that, but there are still points to play for. I thought we dominated the second half. Their goalkeeper’s pulled off a world-class save. Second half we dominated, it took us a while to get to 2-2 but when we did only one team looked like scoring.
You have to give credit to the opposing team. But we played our way. We opened them up, created chances, and it comes down to both boxes again. It is what it is. We looked like we were going to go on and get that winner, we just ran out of time. We have to win both games and hope something happens elsewhere. That’s all we can control.
Emma Hayes is good value.
Well if anyone thinks that’s a comfortable experience for a coach, let me tell you something, that was horrendous for 45 minutes. Man City are a top team, they really are, and these games really bring the best and the worst out of us. And for me, I hated every single minute of that second half.
I liked the first half. This is the danger, sometimes you’re 2-1 up, you need a point at a minimum, they’re horrible scorelines. I’m so relieved it’s over. My family are watching this. They saw the colour drain out of me for 45 minutes. It’s over. We had chances, they had chances. Is 2-2 a fair result? I don’t care, it’s over. I’m not thinking about the trophy. I’m thinking about calming down, having a cup of tea, going home.
I’ve got an amazing group of women that are resilient as possible. They make me proud every day. I’m going to look forward to the weekend. We worked hard to be in this position.
Ann-Katrin Berger has a chat.
It was a game like I don’t want to play again. It was a tough game. It was a great shift from the girls. We knew it would be a hard game, it was a nervous game for me in goal, but it was a good game.
We have two games left and we can’t underestimate Tottenham and Reading and we have to keep focused. But we knew we had to come here and get a draw or a win. It was a huge, important point and I’m proud of the girls and proud to be playing for Chelsea.
On the incredible save from Lauren Hemp:
I just keep saying it, it’s my job to do these kind of saves. That’s what I train for. It’s just my contribution to the team. It probably was a crucial save, but the girls were amazing and I just did my job. I just want to help my team and do my job. Right now it’s quite good what I do, I just have to keep improving.
Since losing at Chelsea in October, City’s league results have been: D W D W W W W W W W W W W W W D. It is frankly ludicrous that such a run doesn’t end with a league title. They have only lost once in the league all season, but four draws, including at home to Brighton and at Reading, look to have cost them the title. Chelsea have also lost once (at home to Brighton), but have drawn only three.
Both sides assemble in circles on the pitch. City look broken. They have thrown everything into that game and have not got the result they needed. Chelsea have come through the toughest test of their domestic campaign, and have the title in their hands. Chelsea did randomly lose a game in February, at home to Brighton, but it would take an extraordinary effort of optimism to expect them to do it again in their last two fixtures.
It was close, though. City did not show enough composure in the Chelsea area, particularly in the second half, but it took a phenomenal point-blank save from Berger, flinging up a right hand to push Hemp’s header against the bar, to deny the home side a third goal.
Final score: Manchester City 2-2 Chelsea
90+6 mins: It’s all over! Emma Hayes punches the air as the final whistle sounds, and Chelsea keep their two-point lead over City with two games now remaining.
90+6 mins: Chelsea have the last chance! The ball is headed through to Kerr, who sprints away from the defence but Roebuck pushes away her shot!
90+5 mins: The final minute. City try to work a crossing chance on the right, but Bronze’s chipped pass to Kelly bounces out of play. Berger will gobble up a few more seconds here.
90+4 mins: An inch-perfect cross! Greenwood sends the ball in from deep and Bronze makes a late run to the far post to win the header, but her effort bounces wide!
90+3 mins: Chelsea are successfully holding City at arm’s length here. Still, just one inch-perfect cross ...
90+2 mins: It’s a deep cross, headed back into the mixer, and Berger comes out to claim it.
90+1 mins: Weir wins City a corner. Greenwood comes forward to take it.
90+1 mins: There will be at least five minutes of stoppage time. It’s caution-to-the-wind time for City now.
90 mins: Berger is unsurprisingly fine. Chelsea tick away a few more seconds by bringing England on for Kirby.
88 mins: Hemp crosses from the right, Berger dives to catch it, and the 30-year-old feels her right thigh and stays down. Though she could just be time-wasting.
86 mins: City lose the ball in their left-back position, win it back again, lose it again, and eventually foul Carter. Chelsea have a free kick, and a chance to waste a few precious seconds.
85 mins: Chance for City! Kelly’s brilliant cross dips onto the head of Hemp beyond the far post, but she can’t get a header on target.
84 mins: Chelsea are starting to threaten again as City push numbers forward. There’s another goal in this game yet.
82 mins: The ball runs to Reiten, who, um, presumably came off the bench at some point, and her low left-footer runs across goal and wide.
79 mins: What a stop! City send in a corner, Hemp wins the header, and Berger somehow tips it onto the bar!
78 mins: Twelve minutes to play. One more goal for City and the title is all but theirs. This could not be set up any sweeter.
77 mins: Greenwood is booked for a foul on Kirby in midfield.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-2 Chelsea (Hemp, 74 mins)
Finally the ball runs their way, and Lauren Hemp snaffles the chance! Chelsea have only got themselves to blame: Kirby gives the ball away, Bright completely miskicks when given the chance to clear Kelly’s cross, and Hemp is the first to react, sweeping the ball home from the six-yard line!
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71 mins: City break, Kelly finds Lavelle with an excellent pass, and instead of turning and shooting she attempts some kind of complicated choreography, feinting this way and that in an effort to work a chance on her right foot, and ends up with no chance at all.
70 mins: Chelsea win a corner, which Charles heads wide.
68 mins: Now Hemp has a shooting chance from the edge of the box, but she decides to attempt a pass instead, and finds a defender. It is just not happening for City in the final third. They’re getting the ball there often enough, but making poor decisions when they do.
66 mins: Hemp gets the ball on the left, but she delays her cross a little too long and then hits it into the side netting.
65 mins: A good run from Kirby down the left, who always has the beating of Greenwood for pace, and she holds the ball up before laying back to Kerr, who sidefoots wide.
64 mins: Ellen White, who has made some good runs but not had any real chances, leaves the pitch, and Lavelle is on.
62 mins: Chelsea make the game’s first substitution: Harder goes off and Charles comes on.
60 mins: City are having all the attacking pressure, but Chelsea are defending in numbers, City are being a little shot-shy, and they haven’t really seriously threatened to score in these last 15 minutes.
58 mins: Hemp pulls it back to White, who pulls it back to Weir, who by that stage is a bit too far back, and shoots into a defender.
55 mins: Kerr goes down and requires a bit of physio attention, but at the end of it seems happy enough to continue.
53 mins: The ball is played through by Bronze to White inside the area, but Ingle gets her body between player and goal, blocks off all options, and snuffs out the chance.
49 mins: It doesn’t roll their way here, though: Weir is found in the box, but her control is a little bit too good, the ball gets stuck under her feet, and she can’t conjure a shooting chance from there.
48 mins: The pace of the game is draining at the moment, and it’s forcing mistakes from players of both sides. City can’t let the intensity slip, and have to hope the ball rolls their way.
46 mins: Peeeeep! Chelsea get the second half started.
The players are out and ready for more. Time to decide the title.
The game has been much more fun than Chelsea probably would have wanted, for all that they will be happy with the half-time result. It’s unlikely to calm down much, though: City need two goals, and have no choice but to attack the second half with increasing fury.
Half time: Manchester City 1-2 Chelsea
45+1 mins: In the end we only get 55 seconds. It’s been an excellent half, full of bright attacking and sometimes chaotic defending, and it ends with Chelsea halfway to a result that would all but seal another title.
45+1 mins: There will be a minute of stoppage time, of thereabouts.
45 mins: Kelly sends a delicious cross into the area, but it’s gobbled up, or at least headed clear, by a defender.
43 mins: Kelly nicely touches the ball past Andersson to get to the byline, inside the Chelsea area, but hits her cross straight into a defender. Lauren Hemp is currently holding the cross-of-the-day award.
That @lauren__hemp assist! 🔥pic.twitter.com/fJ0YAv1G7b
— Barclays FA Women's Super League (@BarclaysFAWSL) April 21, 2021
41 mins: White threatens to get on the end of Bright’s underhit back-pass, but Berger gets out quickly to reach it first. She hits her clearance into Bright’s shins, but it deflects to a royal blue shirt.
39 mins: Berger then catches the corner and picks out Kirby with an excellent clearing kick, but she gives the ball away.
38 mins: Save! City have a free kick on the right, which eventually drops to Bronze, who hooks it goalwards and the ball is dipping under the bar until Berger throws out a glove to divert it over!
35 mins: Kerr actually took a bit of a heavy touch as she got to the edge of the penalty area, which is what encouraged Roebuck off her line. But from the moment the keeper moved she simply had to reach the ball first, because if she failed Kerr was just going to nudge it past her and go down. She did not reach the ball first.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-2 Chelsea (Harder, 34 mins)
Pernille Harder sends Roebuck the wrong way and sidefoots into the empty half of the net!
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Penalty to Chelsea!
33 mins: An excellent run from Kerr, who runs into the left of the area, cuts inside Greenwood, and is then presented with a get-your-penalty-here token by the onrushing Roebuck which she accepts it with glee.
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Chelsea (Kelly, 29 mins)
After a terrible few minutes City draw level, with Hemp’s excellent cross from the left going all the way through, past Bright’s attempted left-foot backheel clearing volley (in hindsight there were probably better ways to try to stop that), and leaving Kelly with a tap-in from five yards!
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28 mins: And another chance! Walsh gives the ball to Kirby midway inside her own half, and she finds Kerr, whose first-time shot from just inside the area goes wide.
27 mins: Kirby now finds space down the right before laying back to Ji, who scoops her shot way over the bar. Looking back at the goal, I’m really not sure what Caroline Weir thought she was doing: she’s a fair amount taller than Kerr, and had less far to travel, but made a very weak attempt at winning the header.
GOAL! Manchester City 0-1 Chelsea (Kerr, 25 mins)
The league leaders take the lead! It’s an excellent delivery from the right, and Kerr gets in front of Weir and powers a header between Greenwood and the near post!
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25 mins: Bright lifts the ball over the entire City team and into the run of Kerr, whose control is excellent but whose shot, from a VanBastenesque angle, hits Greenwood and goes behind.
23 mins: Excellent tackle in the area from Greenwood, who goes to ground to hook the ball off Kerr’s toes as the Australia runs down the right side of the box.
21 mins: A more than promising start for the home side, who have been the more threatening, and have certainly had chances to make clear chances even if they haven’t actually made any clear chances.
17 mins: Kerr and Kirby combine to create a shooting chance for Ji, but her effort from the edge of the area deflects wide.
14 mins: Chelsea win a corner, and Roebuck comes out but doesn’t get much distance on her punch. It’s headed back towards goal, and then headed away again. You could call it a clearance off the line if you absolutely insist, but the ball wasn’t going very fast, and the defending player (Greenwood, I think) was always in its path.
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10 mins: Chelsea aren’t exactly sailing through the City storm, but they are managing to survive it. This time there’s a cross from the left, which Mewis heads over from the six-yard line.
9 mins: Now Mewis gets down the right, but once again she can’t pick the final pass, and her cross goes behind White and straight to Bright, who clears for a corner.
8 mins: Kelly runs into space down the right again, running onto White’s flick, but Bright and Ingle eventually catch her up, force her to turn back, and the chance is lost.
7 mins: Chance for City to create a chance! Mewis has the ball in midfield, sucks in a defender or two and White runs into the space they leave behind them. The pass is on to set her completely free, but Mewis can’t pull it off!
4 mins: Chelsea will be happy to weather any early City storm, and they have managed to keep things fairly calm since that early Kelly sprint.
1 mins: Chloe Kelly stretches her legs, going on a fabulous early run down the right, getting past Leupolz, taking on Ingle, and then spearing in a cross/shot that Berger falls on.
1 min: Peeeep! They’re off!
The players are out, and the biggest game of the WSL season is about 120 seconds away!
Gareth Taylor: “We always play to win”
We’re feeling good, feeling excited. I think I said all along, we knew we could have this in our own hands. To get to this stage is a great achievement for us. It’s a great game, a great advert for the league. People think it’s simple to win 12 games consecutively. It’s a great effort from the girls. The whole squad has really come together as a unit. We always play to win. We know what our objective is. We need to stay in the game in the early stages, don’t give anything away.
Emma Hayes: “We’re here to win”
I hope it’s not a thriller. You might. I want a controlled, well-managed game that will see us continue to produce the performances we have all year. We don’t think too much about [the table]. We just know that to win the league you can’t lose to many games. For us, we’re here to win. They’re an exceptional team. They’re deserving of their position in the league. It’s always been a great rivalry, and I’m sure this will be one hell of a game as it is every season.
I’ve been in enough of these games to know there’ll be an ebb and a flow, there’ll be ups and downs. That’s why we love football.
Here’s Emma Hayes during the build-up, indicating how big she thinks this match is.
The teams!
The teams have been announced, and they look like this:
Man City: Roebuck, Bronze, Dahlkemper, Greenwood, Stokes, Walsh, Mewis, Weir, Kelly, Hemp, White.
Chelsea: Berger, Carter, Bright, Ingle, Andersson, Leupolz, Ji, Cuthbert, Kerr, Kirby, Harder.
Here’s how we are lining up against @ChelseaFCW tonight 💪
— Man City Women (@ManCityWomen) April 21, 2021
XI: Roebuck, Bronze, Dahlkemper, Greenwood, Stokes, Walsh, Mewis, Weir, Kelly, Hemp, White (C)
SUBS: Taieb, Mannion, Davies, Park, Lavelle, Beckie, Morgan, Stanway
🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/HkTzfLv0HJ pic.twitter.com/JqpveCoKZA
Your Chelsea team to take on Man City! 👊#CFCW pic.twitter.com/7rX61GIL3z
— Chelsea FC Women (@ChelseaFCW) April 21, 2021
Hello world
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time.
It has been apparent for many months that this game would probably decide this season’s title, and so it is. Chelsea come into it with a two-point advantage, and should they complete the double over their closest rivals they would emerge five points ahead with two games to play, against mid-table Tottenham and Reading, and the engraver can safely start scratching their name into the trophy. A draw wouldn’t be quite as decisive, but a Chelsea side that has won 16 of their 19 WSL games so far is unlikely to drop any more points. A Manchester City victory, on the other hand, would leave them ahead by a point with games against struggling West Ham and Birmingham to come, and they too seem unlikely to slip up. Essentially it’s win or bust for them tonight, with the title the prize.
“I think it’s fair to say it’s a big game,” says the Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, wrapping up the understatement of the season prize with a few weeks to spare. “I’m used to these games so forgive me for not sounding sort of delirious about it but it is just another one for us,” she added.
Yeah, sure, fine, whatever you say. It certainly doesn’t feel like just another one from my perch. It is, to all intents and purposes, a cup final. Let’s enjoy it together, shall we?
