It was a tantalizing match up between the 2 most in-form groups within the nation; coming to Wembley, Metropolis was on a 13-game successful streak and Chelsea an 11-game successful streak.
Intriguingly, the final time both of those groups misplaced a match was towards the opposite, and it was unsurprisingly an extremely even affair all through.
It was the primary time the boys’s and ladies’s FA Cup finals have been performed on the identical weekend, and after Saturday’s stalemate between Liverpool and Chelsea, it was obvious very early on Sunday’s closing — performed in entrance of a file crowd of 49,094 — wouldn’t comply with go well with.
After a frantic begin, the impasse was damaged simply after the half-hour mark, as Kerr headed Millie Vivid’s deep, looping cross over the road on the far publish. It was a deserved opener for Chelsea, which had dealt with the event much better than its opponent within the early levels.
It was the second time Metropolis and Chelsea had confronted one another in a serious closing this season, with Metropolis rising as a 3-1 winner within the Ladies’s League Cup closing again in March.
Kerr opened the scoring that day, too, and Chelsea would have maybe been feeling frightened of experiencing déjà vu, because the lead lasted lower than 10 minutes.
Lauren Hemp’s fantastic particular person purpose bought Metropolis again stage, because the ahead lower inside Vivid and curled a pleasant effort in on the far publish leaving Chelsea goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger rooted to the spot.
Nonetheless, Chelsea retook the lead simply after the hour, and this time it was an Erin Cuthbert wonderstrike placing the staff forward. With little or no again raise, she crashed a long-range shot in off the underside of the crossbar Metropolis goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck could not get near.
Chelsea will need to have thought it was the purpose to safe back-to-back FA Cup titles, however the Metropolis aspect by no means is aware of when it is overwhelmed.
With lower than two minutes of the 90 remaining, Hayley Raso managed a by means of ball on her chest and completed brilliantly with the skin of her boot to haul Metropolis stage as soon as once more.
It was a massively vital second for Raso on the most important of levels. 4 years in the past, she wasn’t even positive whether or not she would stroll once more after breaking three vertebrae in an on-pitch collision whereas enjoying within the US.
However this Chelsea aspect can lay declare to being among the best the ladies’s sport has seen within the nation.
There have been some issues about whether or not the bodily and emotional toll of successful the ladies’s league title on the ultimate day of the season’s final weekend, following a grueling season-long battle with Arsenal, would have taken an excessive amount of out of the Chelsea aspect, however Kerr’s relentless power encapsulated the will the staff performs with.
It was Alanna Kennedy’s error, lacking an tried interception, which gifted Chelsea the ball 10 minutes into additional time. Kerr ran greater than half the size of the pitch, earlier than firing an effort that deflected off Alex Greenwood and wrong-footed Roebuck.
The victory secured an eleventh title with Chelsea for Hayes, who solely additional cements her place as one of many main coaches within the ladies’s sport.
