Chelsea v Manchester United: Women’s League Cup final - live

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Half-time reading: Our roundup of today’s results in the WSL.

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Chelsea haven’t had it all their own way. United have looked threatening in spells with Melvine Malard and Elisabeth Terland especially dangerous.

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Half-time: Chelsea 1-0 Man Utd

Lauren James’s goal separates the two sides at the break. She profited from Dominique Janssen’s slack play on the edge of her own box and fired past Phallon Tullis-Joyce.

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Updated at 11.04 EDT

45+1 min: Chance for United at the end of the half. Malard twists past Baltimore and Wangerheim can’t divert her cross in at the near post.

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45 min: One minute added on.

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44 min: The skies have darkened even more, the rain is heavier, the wind sending it sideways. I think everyone would be glad for half-time. Not Malard, though, who leads a United attack that ends in a bitty spell of play the ends in a Chelsea throw.

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42 min: Vital defending from Le Tissier! Nusken plays a wonderfully weighted ball in behind for Thompson to chase. The American bears down on goal one-on-one, shapes to shoot and a retreating Le Tissier slides in just in time to stop her. A captain’s challenge.

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40 min: Le Tissier finds Terland in the centre circle. The Norwegian turns into space and United enjoy some possession in the Chelsea half. Not many gaps are appearing though.

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38 min: Cuthbert comes away with the ball after Chelsea clear another Riviere long throw. Rytting Kaneryd feeds a ball into the United area, it falls to Cuthbert but she skews her shot wide. It looked like it was heading in the top corner for a second.

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Man Utd hit the bar!

36 min: Terland shrugs off Rytting Kaneryd and drives into the Chelsea area. Her shot has plenty of power and strikes the crossbar on the near side of the goal. Hampton might have got a touch on it but a goal-kick is given. Some effort.

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34 min: Riviere lines up a long throw that causes mild panic in the Chelsea box. Malard juggles the ball and loses control before she can hook it into the middle, the ball bobbling out for a goal-kick.

Up the other end, Cuthbert turns into space but can’t keep her shot down from 25 yards out.

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32 min: Just wide from Terland! After a couple of scuffed early efforts, Terland connects with a shot from the edge of the box. Hampton scrambles over to her right and is glad to see it whistle past the post. She’s been United’s biggest threat so far.

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30 min: Baltimore and James find the going tough as they try to break United’s resistance down the left wing. Riviere and Park team up to keep them at bay. It’s an intriguing battle.

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28 min: Bronze has to get on her bike to chase after Wangerheim. The ball comes back to Park, whose strike from distance is straight at Hampton, who gathers at the second attempt.

Riviere is having a decent game for United. She nips past Thompson with a neat Cruyff turn and wins a free-kick inside her own half.

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26 min: James and Baltimore combine down the Chelsea left. Riviere slides in to prevent the Frenchwoman from cutting inside and then forces her to retreat from the area altogether.

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24 min: Marc Skinner and his coaching staff consult their dugout iPads, sheltered against the rain in plastic sheeting, after that gift of a goal. Hugely disappointing for United.

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22 min: If you’re going to make a mistake on the edge of your own box, Lauren James is the last person you want to see pick up the ball. No mercy from her.

United respond well as Malard sends an inviting cross across goal that’s just too high for any of her teammates.

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Updated at 10.39 EDT

GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Man Utd (James 19)

James punishes Janssen! It’s poor from the United centre-back, who receives a throw-in on the edge of her own box and scuffs a pass into James’s path. The shot, when it comes, is devastating and beats Tullis-Joyce at her near post.

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Updated at 10.47 EDT

18 min: Terland looks bemused after she is penalised for bringing down Cuthbert some 30 yards from the Chelsea goal when it looked like the other way around.

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16 min: A string of throw-ins keep the assistant referees busy on both touchlines.

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14 min: United are finding a bit of space in the final third. Wangerheim scuffs a ball into the box that is cut out before it can reach a completely unmarked Malard.

James shows her quality up the other end with a fizzing cross that no one in blue can divert towards goal. Chelsea’s No 10 then pings a shot across goal that flies just over the bar.

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12 min: Terland should do better. A darting run from Wangerheim sends Chelsea into a flap on the edge of their own box and the ball springs loose to the Norwegian. Her first touch isn’t great and she has to dig a shot out – it drifts well wide.

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10 min: James threatens for Chelsea, winning a corner after her shot is blocked by Zigiotti. The rain is coming down steadily – those in the front rows of the healthy crowd at Ashton Gate have their hoods up. So does Sonia Bompastor.

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8 min: Excellent defending from Buchanen. Malard tries to thread a ball in behind the Chelsea defence but Buchanen matches Terland for pace and wins a free-kick.

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6 min: Chelsea knock the ball about for a bit and a sliding Lundkvist steps in to prevent Bronze from making inroads down the right.

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4 min: It’s an end to end start. Rytting Kaneryd feeds James out wide and her cross takes a deflection out for a corner. Cuthbert’s delivery bounces right through a crowded penalty area.

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3 min: Hampton is the first goalkeeper called into action! Terland is allowed to carry the ball deep into the Chelsea half and goes low from distance, with Hampton turning the shot round the post. Chelsea deal with the corner.

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2 min: Chelsea start on the front foot as Cuthbert plays in James in the area. James wins a corner but Baltimore takes it short and United stop anything coming into the box.

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Kick-off

It’s Chelsea who get us under way. With Champions League teams not involved in the League Cup from next season onwards, this could be their last chance to lift this trophy for a while.

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A minute’s silence is held for the Oxford Utd academy player Amelia Aplin and the former Chelsea goalkeeper Amy Carr. Aplin, just 15, died during an academy match last week. Carr, 34, died after losing her battle with cancer.

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Sonia Bompastor and Marc Skinner lead their teams out into a rather grey afternoon in Bristol. Kick-off is upon us.

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Chelsea begin life without Guro Reiten today after she sealed a move to Gotham FC in the States. She leaves with winners’ medals for six WSL titles, four FA Cups and three League Cups in six years.

Her farewell video on Chelsea’s social channels was emotional, to say the least:

double quotation markEverything has an end and this is my end here at Chelsea. I still remember Emma [Hayes] called me six and a half years ago, convinced me to join the club and I was terrified. Scared that I wasn’t good enough, scared to move away from my family.

Little did I know I was going to get a new family here because it has been all about the people and the ones that have been with me on this journey.

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Road to the final: Here’s how Chelsea and Man Utd have made it to Ashton Gate. Both teams received a bye into the knockout stage because of their involvement in European football.

Yes, that is 9 (nine) for the defending champions in the last eight …

Chelsea

Quarter-final – Liverpool 1-9 Chelsea

Semi-final – Man City 0-1 Chelsea

Man Utd

Quarter-final – Man Utd 2-1 Tottenham

Semi-final – Arsenal 0-1 Man Utd

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Today’s full-time scores in the WSL:

Aston Villa 0-0 Manchester City

Liverpool 2-0 Leicester (Olsson 10, Holland 89pen)

London City 0-2 Arsenal (Smith 15, Blackstenius 76)

Tottenham 1-2 Everton (Gaupset 76; Momiki 12, Gago 83)

Chelsea and Manchester United will be glad to see leaders Manchester City drop points …

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If you want more women’s football on the Guardian, you can sign up to the Moving the Goalposts newsletter – biweekly stories in your inbox from writers across the globe.

This week’s editions are here:

‘So much disrespect’: outrage grows over postponement of Women’s Africa Cup of Nations

Attendance records and star power but who will win it? Get ready for the new NWSL season

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Sonia Bompastor is under pressure at Chelsea, who look like going without a WSL title for the first time since 2019. The manager knows the expectation today, as in any competition they enter, is that Chelsea come home with the trophy:

double quotation markI will always expect to have a lot of noise around Chelsea. There will be noise when you are losing, or when something happens, because I think this club is the best in England.

That’s why this happens and I’m totally fine with it. It’s important also when you are in high moments you don’t go too high and in more low moments you don’t go too low.

We just want to win because that’s part of our DNA. I don’t want to win because people are talking or making noise. That’s not what drives us.

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Interview: Fridolina Rolfö starts this one on the bench for Manchester United. The serial winner with Barcelona has been speaking to Suzanne Wrack this week about the prospect of a first piece of silverware in England:

double quotation markThis is what we all strive for. The club wants this. We all want to win it and we strive to get there and now we’re there. We’ve been performing really well and we had a great game against Arsenal [in the semi-final], so we deserve to be in this final.

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Starting lineups

Chelsea (4-3-3): Hampton; Bronze, Buchanen, Buurman, Baltimore; Walsh, Cuthbert, Nusken; James, Rytting Kaneryd, Thompson.

Subs: Peng, Bjorn, Sarwie, Spencer, Kaptein, Potter, Beever-Jones.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): Tullis-Joyce; Lundkvist, Le Tissier, Riviere, Janssen; Zigiotti Olme, Naalsund; Park, Terland, Malard; Wangerheim.

Subs: Middleton-Patel, Rendell, George, Turner, Anderson, Awujo, Rolfo, Drury, Schuller.

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Updated at 09.39 EDT

Preamble

This time last year, there was talk that Chelsea had ticked off the first trophy of a possible quadruple after they beat Manchester City in the Women’s League Cup final in Derby. Today, in Bristol, the feeling is quite different for the team that went on to win a domestic treble – not too shabby.

Chelsea’s defence of their WSL title is in tatters with Manchester City nine points clear of them – today’s opponents, Manchester United, are above them in the table. The FA Cup is still on (a quarter-final against Tottenham awaits) and a first Champions League is also possible (Arsenal stand in their way in that one). Beating United at Ashton Gate this afternoon would set them up nicely for the rest of the season.

As for United, they are still dreaming of catching City in the league (the gap is eight points) and have never won the League Cup – this is their first final. Marc Skinner’s side will also be keen to avenge their elimination at the hands of Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup last month.

We will have extra time and penalties if necessary as the first trophy of the English season is handed out. Get in touch via email or simply follow along.

Kick-off is 2.15pm (GMT) – team news is coming shortly.

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