Sam Kerr scores match-winner as Chelsea wins Girls’s FA Cup in entrance of report crowd
Sam Kerr has led Chelsea to their third straight Girls’s FA Cup, scoring the lone aim within the remaining in opposition to Manchester United in entrance of a report crowd at Wembley.
Key factors:
- The sold-out recreation beat the earlier report for a ladies’s home match by greater than 17,000
- Sam Kerr scored six targets in 5 FA Cup matches this yr
- Chelsea is trailing United within the hunt for the Girls’s Tremendous League title, however has a recreation in hand
With 77,390 individuals in attendance, the sold-out recreation smashed the earlier report for a ladies’s home membership soccer match — an Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona conflict in 2019 — by 17,000 individuals.
It was additionally virtually 30,000 extra followers than final yr’s decider, when simply over 49,000 individuals set a then-record for a Girls’s FA Cup match as Chelsea beat Manchester Metropolis in additional time.
Kerr’s 68th-minute strike, poking residence Pernille More durable’s cross, proved decisive as Chelsea gained the trophy for the third straight yr to stay in competition for a league and cup double.
The Matildas captain scored a double, together with an extra-time aim to win final yr’s remaining in opposition to Metropolis 3-2, which adopted a double within the 2021 decider in opposition to Arsenal, making it 5 targets for Kerr up to now three FA Cup finals.
It might need been a unique story had Leah Galton’s strike within the opening minute not been dominated out for offside as United obtained off to a flying begin, however the Crimson Devils couldn’t take benefit.
“We needed to kick one another at half-time,” Chelsea boss Emma Hayes mentioned.
“We all know the way to keep in a recreation and, even when we weren’t at our greatest, we’ve to work out the way to change it.
“We needed to possess the ball higher after which discover the standard within the remaining third.”
They usually did that, with Kerr breaking the impasse when she latched onto the move from substitute More durable to fit previous Mary Earps.
Kerr took off and celebrated together with her conventional backflip as teammates swarmed her.
“The event simply wanted a backflip did not it?” she mentioned after the sport.
“I had been requested for it by a number of mates, so it was the day.”
It was Kerr’s sixth aim in 5 FA Cup video games this season, which included the winner in a 1-0 semifinal victory over Aston Villa, and a hat-trick of their opening 3-2 win over Liverpool.
United supervisor Marc Skinner bemoaned his group’s lack of ability to seek out the knockout blow, which Kerr has confirmed repeatedly is her speciality.
“We swap off in a single second, there’s house to Sam to run into, which we’ve not given her all recreation,” United supervisor Marc Skinner mentioned.
“Chelsea have executed hardly something within the recreation, however they’re winners for a motive, they discover that tiny little hole.”
Every week after being Australia’s flag-bearer on the coronation of King Charles III, Kerr had one other brush with royalty as Prince William introduced the Blues with their champions’ medals in London.
In addition to successful three FA Cups in a row, Chelsea has additionally gained back-to-back league titles up to now two seasons and is making an attempt to finish one other League and Cup double.
Chelsea is second within the Girls’s Tremendous League, some extent behind chief United, however with a recreation in hand.
“It is one piece of the jigsaw. I would like extra, this is not sufficient,” Chelsea midfielder Erin Cuthbert mentioned.
“We wish to go for the league now. We will solely management the controllables.”
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