Chelsea wrapped up their sixth consecutive Women’s Super League title and record-extending eighth in total after a 1-0 victory at Manchester United on Wednesday, with Lucy Bronze heading home a corner late in the game.
Sonia Bompastor’s Blues, who needed only a point from Wednesday’s match to secure another title and continue their WSL dominance, sit atop the league table with 54 points for an unassailable nine-point lead over Arsenal with two games remaining. United are third on 43 points.
Despite terrific scoring chances for both sides, the game looked headed for a draw before Bronze leapt to head in Sandy Baltimore’s corner just inside the far post in the 74th minute sparking a celebration that looked like a mix of joy and relief from Bompastor’s players.
“It’s a great achievement,” Bompastor told Sky Sports. “It feels a bit unreal. Tonight it’s a team performance. We bounced back and showed the great character the team has.
“This league is really competitive. Maybe for some people they just think being Chelsea, it’s really easy for us to achieve this, but it isn’t,” she added. “We work really hard and we had the right mindset from the beginning of the season until now.”
The team celebrated arm-in-arm in front of Chelsea’s visiting fans.
The title caps a remarkable debut season for Bompastor after she stepped into the shoes of former manager Emma Hayes, who left Chelsea after 12 trophy-laden seasons to coach the United States women’s team.
Bompastor has guided Chelsea to an undefeated season thus far, with 17 victories in their 20 games.
Aston Villa had paved the way for Chelsea to clinch the title with their 5-2 hammering of Arsenal earlier in the evening.
“We knew before the game that Arsenal had got beat, so we knew what we needed, but we wanted to win, we want to go unbeaten all season,” Bronze told Sky. “We get to finish at home at Stamford Bridge. All our fans get to come down and celebrate winning the trophy.”
The one-goal night was not for a lack of chances on both sides.
United squandered an opportunity to break the deadlock just before halftime when Melvine Malard latched on to a back-pass but Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton got out quickly to stifle her chance. The ball then fell to Grace Clinton, who unleashed a shot from 20 yards that Hampton pushed over the bar.
“I don’t think I’ve got enough words to say (how I’m feeling),” Hampton said.
“We’re all ecstatic and we’re not going to let up in the last two games, we want to go the whole season unbeaten.”
United goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce made a brilliant triple save in the second half, batting Aggie Beever-Jones’ shot into the path of Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, whose strike hit Tullis-Joyce before Erin Cuthbert fired straight at the keeper.
United had to watch Chelsea celebrate last season as well when they clinched their fifth title in a row with a 6-0 thrashing in Manchester in a fitting finale for Hayes.
Source: Reuters
--Agencies
