Chelsea Women v Manchester City Women: Preview Team News and Prediction

03/27/2025 06:30 AM

The final Match Sees The Blues Aiming for Champions League Last Four

The epic battles between Manchester City Women and Chelsea Women ends tonight as they meet for the fourth time in 12 days at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea have won two of the previous three, with the latest coming in heart-breaking fashion for City as a late Erin Cuthbert goal stole the points for the West London side on Sunday.

However, City's only win from the three matches so far was a crucial 2-0 win in the Champions League and a draw will be enough to send the Blues through to the semi-final at Chelsea's expense.

The teams could potentially meet again in the FA Cup Final, should City beat United and Chelsea defeat Liverpool in April.

But the focus for Nick Cushing's side is to see out tonight's Champions League quarter final against the champions and ensure the Blues reach the last four for the first time since 2018. It's a tall order, but the Blues are the only team to beat Chelsea so far this season and a draw, or even a one-goal defeat, will be enough to see the Blues qualify.

Form

Chelsea go into the match unbeaten at home this season and the last team to beat them on home ground was the Blues back in February last year. Bunny Shaw's first half goal was enough to claim the points for the Blues and the faithful will be hoping for a similar result this evening.

The home side are the runaway leaders in the WSL and look set to take another title as they sit eight points clear of second-placed Arsenal with five games remaining.

Sunday's defeat to Chelsea was City's third at home this season and that means they have lost to all the top three sides at home this season. That loss leaves them seven points behind United and Arsenal and facing a mountain to climb if they want to qualify for next season's Champions League.

The reality is that only a monumental collapse by either of those two sides seems unlikely, but that will be the only way, coupled with the Blues winning all of their final five matches, to finish at least third in the table.

Team News

Chelsea will be without Naomi Girma, Guro Reiten, Sam Kerr and Maelys Mpome who are all making their way back to full fitness following injuries. However, Sonia Bompastor may recall Keira Walsh, Mayra Ramirez, Sandy Baltimore and Erin Cuthbert back to the starting line-up as the look to overturn the 2-0 deficit.

City have their own injury crisis and Nick Cushing will need all his tactical nouse to guide City through with the players available. Ayaka Yamashita is set for a spell on the sidelines and will once again be replaced by Khiara Keating. The Blues will also be without Alex Greenwood, Rebecca Knaak, Lauren Hemp, Bunny Shaw, Aoba Fujino and Risa Shimizu, while Laia Aleixandri and Yui Hasegawa were both replaced during Sunday's defeat after picking up injuries.

Prediction

This is going to be tough. Without the injuries I would go for a City win but that's one hell of a list and the Blues best form of attack will be defence. And they will need to defend on Thursday. I'm still confident they will make it through, but it will be close.

Prediction: Chelsea 3-2 City