Chelsea vs. Manchester City, Women's League Cup final: Preview, team news, how to watch
03/14/2025 11:52 PM
First of four season-defining matches
Death, taxes, and season-defining matches against Manchester City: these are the unavoidable things in life, with City the team we find most often on our path to silverware in just about any competition.
That's especially true this season, with four matches in a row on tap against our rivals. Yes, four. One, two, three, four. League Cup, league, Champions League.
First up, the League Cup final.
Date / Time: Saturday, March 15, 2025, 12.15 GMT; 8:15am EDT
Venue: Pride Park, Derby
Referee: Emily Heaslip (on pitch); Matt Donohue (VAR!)
Forecast: Cloudy with a breeze
On TV: BBC One (UK); none (USA); elsewhere
Streaming: BBC iPlayer (UK); ESPN+ (USA)
Chelsea team news: Our amazing unbeaten run under head coach Sonia Bompastor continues. Though there have been some ups and downs in the performance levels, Bompastor has managed to keep it going despite the pressures, expectations, and all the injuries we've had to deal with.
And she's going to have to keep finding new winning combinations, with Maelys Mpomé, Naomi Girma, Keira Walsh and Guro Reiten all ruled out, joining long-term absentees like Sam Kerr. The one bit of good news on the injury front is Mia Fishel, who's been an unused sub in our last two matches, and thus could feature in this final. It would be her first appearance in over 15 months!
Manchester City team news: City may be well out of this year's title race — and if they're no careful, they might not even finish top-three — but they could very easily be the fly in our ointment in not just one, but two other competitions.
Gareth Taylor, who had been in charge for nearly five years, paid the price last week for their struggles by getting the sack. Interim replacement Nick Cushing, formerly the head coach at NYCFC, will head into his first match without defender Rebecca Knaak, who arrived at the club in January. However forward Aoba Fujino is set to return.
Previously: Mayra Ramírez opened the scoring 75 minutes in and Guro Reiten sealed the deal four minutes later at Stamford Bridge in the Women's Super League.
