Chelsea Ladies warmed up for next weekend’s Women’s FA Cup final with a thrilling 6-3 victory over Liverpool Ladies on Sunday.
They fell behind after just 57 seconds, when Katie Zelem’s left-footed strike from the edge of the box proved too good for Blues keeper Hedvig Lindahl.
But Chelsea drew level on nine minutes when Fran Kirby picked up a loose pass and fed Karen Carney, who drew the keeper before squeezing the ball in at the near post.
Lindahl pulled off a fine save to deny Caroline Weir but the rest of the first half was wave after wave of Chelsea attacks, with Eni Aluko and Ji So-yun prominent.
They took the lead just before the half-hour mark. Kirby combined with Aluko in the right channel and skilfully worked space in the box before clipping a shot past Siobhan Chamberlain in the Reds goal.
Chamberlain also saved from Katie Chapman and Aluko but was beaten twice more before the break, with Drew Spence and Aluko netting to make it 4-1.
Liverpool threatened to turn the game on its head with two goals in a minute early in the second half.
First, Weir’s left-footed free-kick beat the dive of Lindahl and then substitute Emma Lundh smashed home from inside the box.
But they extended their lead just after the hour mark when Hannah Blundell skipped past her full-back and cut the ball across for Kirby to finish.
Spence then took advantage of some hesitant Liverpool defending after Kirby’s blocked shot to grab her second.
Carney’s free-kick came back off the bar and a couple of other chances were passed up in front of a crowd of 2,406, as Chelsea maintained their 100 per cent start to the season.
This post was last modified on 09/05/2016