Chelsea advance to FA Cup final after victory at Arsenal

Chelsea reached the women’s FA Cup final for the second successive season after beating last year’s runners-up Arsenal 2-0 at Boreham Wood’s Meadow Park stadium.

After a goalless opening 45 minutes, Chelsea broke the deadlock five minutes into the second period through Guro Reiten. Beth England and Sam Kerr linked up well before the former sprayed a ball wide to Reiten on the left-hand side, who cut inside and dinked a ball with her left foot over the head of Manuela Zinsberger and into the top left corner.

On the hour mark Ji So-Yun doubled Chelsea’s lead, lashing a powerful strike beyond Zinsberger and a calamitous Arsenal defence. Millie Bright thumped a free-kick up the pitch from deep inside her own half which fell for Kerr just inside the penalty area, but after she failed to get the ball under control, Lotte Wubben-Moy could only clear the loose ball as far as So-Yun, who needed no invitation to hammer Chelsea further ahead.

Unlike Ann-Katrin Berger in the Chelsea net who had little to do all afternoon, Zinsberger made a string of important saves throughout the second half to keep the score down to a two-goal deficit, and without her brilliance it could have been a very different story.

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England came close to stretching Chelsea’s lead to three with just a few minutes remaining, and after an exquisite touch as she plucked a ball out of the air – which deserved a goal itself – lashed her effort just wide of the woodwork.

Chelsea continued to push for a third, but the final whistle eventually arrived to mark the Blues return to Wembley, where they will face Manchester City in the final on May 15.