Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City, Women League Cup final: reaction after the game

Under a caretaker manager after releasing Gareth Taylor five days ago, Manchester City's play style couldn't really change from what we almost always see from them. The team, which was almost as exhausted by injuries as Chelsea, want to bring the ball from Bunny Shaw in advance, and this plan works against most opposition.

They wanted to have the ball and we looked very ready to just leave them in a few places when they exchanged passes back and forth and tried to make space for Shaw to attack. In the meantime we wanted to use attacks quickly and use Lauren James and Mayra Ramírez to lead our approaches.

Our game plan worked out pretty quickly. A wonderful pass from Lauren to Mayra crossed the city's defense and left the Colombian striker with goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita on a one -on -one conversation. She didn't hit her on the first attempt, but this was the second.

Our opening goal in the eighth minute did not change the approach to City's game, while we were only brave of what we got. Lauren and Mayra took the lead very close in the following minutes of the first half, but could not do it.

In the second half it looked as if we just wanted to close everything and take the one-gate lead to the final whistle. But City had different plans and they got the start with a big Aoba Fujino strike after several attempts against our goal.

Her binding goal forced Chelsea to get out of her shell, although City was not really interested in allowing this. However, the right hustle and bustle of Lucy Bronze to keep an attacking game alive, and a very bad clearance attempt by Yui Hasegawa brought us forward again.

City was very desperate and kept trying to hurt our goal. But they couldn't do it without a miracle and they would not find any other in the last minutes of the game.

Women's League Cup winner again.

Carefree!

• Sjoeke Nüsken and Erin Cuthbert begin in midfield.
• This pass from Lauren James to support Mayra Ramírez 'Opener was incredible.
• Not a very comfortable game because the city dominated most of the field, including its last third. Still a very good test for our defense and goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, who performs quite well under these circumstances.
• The less about pitch quality in a domestic cup final, the better. We should be in a phase in which this does not happen, but it is clear that our football bosses think something else.
• Next: Manchester City in the first leg of the women's quarter -final of the Women's Champions League Quarter.
• KTBFH!