The 2025 Subway Ladies’s League Cup ultimate will see the primary home silverware of the season handed out, with Chelsea set to tackle Manchester Metropolis at Satisfaction Park in Derby.
Saturday’s conflict is the primary of 4 conferences between the 2 groups this month, with fixtures within the Champions League (two legs) and WSL to come back. Chelsea have misplaced every of the final three finals on this competitors, together with in 2022 towards this weekend’s opponents.
For Sonia Bompastor, who took on the position as head coach of the London membership final summer season, it could possibly be her first style of silverware in England. Metropolis, then again, parted methods with Gareth Taylor earlier this week and former supervisor Nick Cushing has taken cost on an interim foundation.
The upheaval within the dugout means it is troublesome to foretell precisely what group Cushing will go far, however there’ll little question be some attention-grabbing matchups throughout the pitch.
Right here, 90min seems on the potential battles that would resolve Saturday’s ultimate…
Metropolis ahead Khadija Shaw is as soon as once more in excellent goalscoring type. The Jamaica worldwide leads the Golden Boot cost within the WSL and can little question be her group’s biggest risk within the field.
Millie Shiny and centre-back accomplice Nathalie Bjorn will possible be the 2 tasked with preserving one of many league’s most prolific goalscorers quiet. Shaw has scored in 4 of Metropolis’s final six video games throughout all competitions, so might be a handful for the Chelsea defence.
It’s also price noting that Bompastor’s aspect have conceded in 4 of their final six matches, together with two in a WSL assembly with Brighton & Hove Albion earlier this month. Chelsea’s defence is just not infallible, which suggests Shiny will must be on the high of her sport to be able to preserve Shaw at bay.
The midfield battle is all the time essentially the most essential in fixtures of this magnitude. With two groups that wish to preserve possession and work to interrupt their opponent down, management in the midst of the park will possible be decisive.
Yui Hasegawa has been on the coronary heart of Metropolis’s midfield for numerous years, so will possible be known as upon by Cushing this weekend. On the other aspect, Erin Cuthbert signed a brand new contract with Chelsea earlier this week, preserving her on the membership till the summer season of 2027.
Fomer Metropolis star Keira Walsh would have been a shoe-in for this fixture, however Bompastor confirmed on Thursday that the England worldwide continues to be sidelined resulting from harm. Due to this fact, it’ll possible be Cuthbert’s accountability to prepared the ground.
Cuthbert is usually partnered by Wieke Kaptein, though Sjoeke Nusken can be a strong possibility. It’s truthful to say Chelsea should not devoid of excellent midfield choices, even with Walsh unavailable.
Who Metropolis defender Kerstin Casparij is tasked with preserving quiet on Saturday will depend on who Bompastor selects to play on Chelsea’s left. Resulting from Guro Reiten’s absence in current weeks, Lauren James, Catarina Macario and Aggie Beever-Jones have all performed there.
James, particularly, tends to function the perfect out huge along with her energy and trickery. The ahead is a nightmare for any defender, not least as a result of she has the flexibility to chop inside and shoot from vary.
Whoever Casparij faces might be a troublesome check, however the possible battle with James arguably has the potential to be essentially the most essential, not least as a result of the Chelsea star has scored the profitable or equalising purpose of their matches towards Crystal Palace, Brighton and Everton.
On the reverse finish of the pitch to the Shiny and Shaw battle, Metropolis’s defence could have a major job of their very own. Mayra Ramirez is without doubt one of the most fun forwards within the girls’s sport in the intervening time and is constantly a handful for whoever she faces.
Metropolis have been pressured to play a reasonably makeshift defence at instances this season resulting from accidents, together with the long-term absence of Alex Greenwood. Laia Aleixandri is presently the mainstay and has been partnered with both 20-year-old Gracie Prior or Naomi Layzell in current weeks.
READ THE LATEST WOMEN’S FOOTBALL NEWS, FEATURES & ANALYSIS
