Sonia Bompastor won her first trophy in English football and continued her unbeaten first season as Chelsea manager as they triumphed over Manchester City in a well-contested Women’s League Cup final at Pride Park.
The result gave Chelsea a 26th victory from Bompastor’s 28 competitive matches in charge of the club so far in all competitions, and saw the interim Manchester City head coach Nick Cushing lose his first game back in charge of the club, just days after the sacking of Gareth Taylor.
Japan midfielder Yui Hasegawa’s own goal, inadvertently hooked into her own net 13 minutes from time when trying to deal with Mayra Ramírez’s right-wing cross, decided the contest, after a superb, swerving strike from Japan winger Aoba Fujino had brought Manchester City back level at 1-1 in the second half.
Colombia striker Ramírez, a handful throughout, had opened the scoring early in a first half which City had otherwise dominated, applying heavy pressure on a Chelsea defence that produced some gutsy, last-ditch defending to go into half-time in front.
Both teams will have been frustrated by the playing surface, which was far more bobbly than would have been expected for such a showpiece fixture and was sandy in one corner in particular. That undoubtedly had an impact on the quality of play, but did not prevent the match developing into an absorbing affair.
England right-back Lucy Bronze’s strength was evident throughout and she was crucial to the move that led to the winning goal, battling down the right before the deadly cross was supplied by Ramírez.
It was the first of four consecutive meetings between Bompastor and Cushing’s teams, ahead of their two-leg Champions League quarter-final and next weekend’s league fixture.
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Cushing was bizarrely shortlisted for ‘manager or coach of the year’ at the women’s football awards on Friday, despite not being appointed as City’s interim head coach until nine days after the deadline had passed for nominations and despite not having coached in the women’s game for five years. He does, however, have significant pedigree in the women’s game, especially with Manchester City, whom he led to the 2016 Women’s Super League title and to two previous triumphs in the League Cup.
Bompastor is now ‘one from one’ in major English finals and well on course to adding the league title as well. Chelsea were competing in this final for the sixth season in a row but had been the runners-up on three consecutive occasions, since a 6-0 win over Bristol City in the 2021 final. Manchester City were also making their sixth appearance in the final in total but had previously enjoyed more success, lifting the trophy four times in their previous five finals.