Manchester City Women v Chelsea Women: Preview Team News and Prediction
03/23/2025 06:30 AM
Round Three of Clash of the Blues
It's round three on Sunday afternoon as Manchester City take on Chelsea for the third successive time, this time in the WSL at the Joie Stadium. The two clubs have already met twice in the past week, with Chelsea claiming the League Cup last Saturday and City putting on foot in the Champions League semi-final after a 2-0 win in midweek.
Following the WSL clash, the two go head-to-head once again on Thursday to decide who will go through to the last four of the Champions League. And the two could also clash in the FA Cup Final if both pass their semi-final tests, with Chelsea taking on Liverpool and City facing United.
With Sonia Bompastor leading the Chelsea charge and Nick Cushing returning to City, albeit on a temporary basis, the City v Chelsea could become the key fixture in the WSL and beyond in the near future.
Preview
Nick Cushing is still in the process of understanding the best team to play against Chelsea and indeed, the other teams in the WSL. His return to the club was unexpected but the effect was instant, inflicting the first defeat of the season on Bompastor's side to put City within 90 minutes of the Champions League semi-final.
Whilst the dream is to reach their first semi-final in Europe's premier competition since the 2017/18 season, the reality is qualifying for next season's competition and that starts on Sunday afternoon.
City are currently in fourth place, four points behind United, who sit in the third qualifying place and the Blues need to win all their remaining matches and hope United drop points in the run-in to the season's end.
City dropped more points in their last WSL outing, conceding an injury-time equaliser at West Ham when the points seemed destined to go to the Blues.
Chelsea are still unbeaten in the WSL this season and, buoyed by the midweek victory, City will be hopeful of ending that run too. Before Wednesday's loss, Bompastor had seen her side win 26 and draw two of their 28 matches in all competitions so far, extending their unbeaten run to 31 matches before the ended it.
The London are on course to take another WSL title and lead the table by five points with a game in hand over second-placed Arsenal. Their last WSL outing saw them beat Leicester City 3-1 at home, however, in the previous match at Brighton, the champions had to come from behind to draw 2-2 at Brighton, only the second time they have dropped points this season.
Team News
City have a small injury crisis after Cushing confirmed that Bunny Shaw, Rebecca Knaak and Aoba Fujino will miss Sunday's match. The Blues are also unable to call on the services of Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp, as well as long-term casualty Risa Shimizu, who is yet to make her debut with the club after being injured at the Olympics.
Vivianne Miedema, whose midweek brace gives City the advantage over Chelsea, could be set to return to the starting line-up.
Chelsea also have a few injury concerns, as Sonia Bopastor revealed that Sam Kerr remains out as she recovers from an ACL injury, Sophie Ingle, Naomi Girma, Kadeisha Buchanan, Maelys Mpome are also out, as is Guro Reiten, who seems to enjoy scoring against the Blues in recent seasons.
Bompastor may be able to call upon Niamh Charles, Sjoeke Nusken, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Wieke Kaptein as she looks to ring a few changes following their midweek defeat.
Prediction
It will again be difficult as Nick Cushing's side can expect a response from the champions and much will depend on how Cushing sets up, with the Champions League second leg just four days away. This match may not be as open and frantic as Wednesday but I think the Blues may do just enough to take it.
Prediction: City 2-1 Chelsea
