Women’s League Cup Final – Chelsea vs Manchester United

Amongst media buzz surrounding their manager Sonia Bompastor’s future, holders Chelsea will this Sunday have an opportunity to return to their winning ways by lifting their first trophy of the season. Once seemingly infallible, winning 6 consecutive WSL titles, and 3 of the last 6 League Cup Finals, Chelsea’s title defence has left much to be desired. Beset by injuries, including striker Mayra Ramirez, who, having picked up yet another injury in training, is unlikely to play on Sunday, the team have struggled to put away their chances, currently holding the worst xGconversion out of any team in the league, and trailing 1st place by 9 points. Also missing from the squad to injuries are defender Niamh Charles and attacking midfielder Catarina Macario. 

Although Chelsea put up a strong performance against United in their last game before the international break, this will have to be a much-changed squad, with two players crucial to that win, Ellie Carpenter and Sam Kerr, currently away with the Australian National Team for the Asian Cup. It is clear that this will not be the same Chelsea that lined up at Stamford Bridge 3 weeks ago, who have also lost the home advantage. Returning to the squad, however, is forward Lauren James, who just yesterday signed a contract extension with the club until 2030. Returning backfrom the break with a renewed confidence, having played an impressive 90 minutes against Iceland, Lauren James is looking like she will be a very strong threat. 

In a pre-match press-conference, Sonia Bompastor warned fans to not to get too influenced by their poor results, explaining  

‘it's important also when you are in high moments you don't go too high and in more low moments you don't go too low’.  

However, despite the criticism the team is facing, they have much to be hopeful about. Chelsea’s record against Manchester United in finals is incredible, beating them in the 2023 and 2025 FA Cup finals, and remaining unbeaten against them this season. 

Manchester United will be entering this game hoping that this season’s improvements will be enough to overturn Chelsea’s dominance.  

"We're not going to the final to be second best. We have to go into it to win the cup. That's what we're here for. That's why you're at Manchester United." 

In the previous head-to-head, resulting in a 2-1 Chelsea win, the teams drew at full time, with Chelsea only able to break the deadlock via a corner in extra time. United captain Maya Le Tissierexplained in a pre-match press conference that she hopes that reducing these defensive errors will narrow the gap between the two teams, and potentially tip the balance in their favour. 

“That is probably the main thing that we took away from the last game that we played against them. Defensively, we conceded two set-pieces,"  
"You can just see how much smaller the gaps get with fine margins. We had a lot of chances in that game as well that we needed to take.” 

Both teams left their last encounter with key areas to focus on, leaving both sets of fans distinctly unconfident, and the winner extremely difficult to predict. 

All signs point to an exciting and closely fought match.