It was a cold night of February; I was taking my hot chocolate, admiring the incredible show that Chelsea Women FC offered their fans against 5th place Bristol City in the Women’s Super League this Wednesday, at Kingsmeadow.
Bethany England and Fran Kirby were both hat-trick heroes for Chelsea that night, where the Blues beat Bristol City by 6-0.
Bristol, who were unbeaten in their last five league games, seemed to be in a bad situation, after their elimination in the FA Cup against Durham, and they were clearly left shell-shocked when Erin Cuthbert quickly gave a perfect ball to Fran Kirby, for her to score the first of the six goals, just two minutes in.
It was a perfect match, apart from the cold wind. While filming and taking photos of the players, I enjoyed all the splendor of women’s football. 6 goals, it was more than I expected.
As a spectator, I could see that things went from bad to worse for Bristol City, with Fran Kirby once again, fashioned some space in the box and fired past Bristol goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley for her second goal on the 34′.
Later on, Bethany England followed Kirby and scored the third goal for Chelsea before the end of the first half. While I was buying some food to warm up, I could see how animated was the pitch, with the fans celebrating the goals scored by the team…
And probably the three more goals to come. The nightmare of Bristol didn’t finish in the first quarter and it continues, sadly for them, in the second as well. Three more goals. Bristol’s heaviest defeat this season.
They were some changes during the second half, due to the effort put during the match by the players, but didn’t alter in anything the result of the game. The press, the fans and me, we could only continue watching one of the best wins of Chelsea in the Women’s Super League this season.
The fourth goal was like a clap of thunder. The defense of Bristol couldn’t do anything. England quickly found her second (4th goal) just past the hour mark of the second half. After that, it took some time, but after a hard play, substitute Adelina Engman (Chelsea) was brought down in the box late on and let Kirby score the resulting penalty, giving her the hat-trick, with only ten minutes remaining.
But when it seemed the match was over, and when I was packing my camera away, England went quickly into the air, rising highest to guide a header past a hapless Baggaley for the sixth and final goal of the game.
Simply “a beautiful game”. With this Chelsea continues in 3rd place, with 32 points in 16 games, behind Arsenal (2nd), 36 points in 14 games, and 1st place Manchester City, with 38 in 16 games.
Those fans who enjoyed like me their first taste of Chelsea Women’s action at Kingsmeadow will now have to wait a month for their next chance to see the Blues back again at their stadium.
An international break is coming up, followed by back-to-back away matches, versus Liverpool (League) and Durham (FA Cup), before they finally host Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Women’s Champions League quarter-final on Thursday 21 March.
WOMEN IN FOOTBALL: THE GLASS CEILING 