Women’s Continental Cup Final Betting Tips: Can Chelsea stop Arsenal?
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It’s a big weekendfor women’s football, as Arsenal and Chelsea meet in the ninth FA Women’sLeague Cup Final.
Amazingly, Arsenal have appeared in seven of the last eightshowpieces. They’ve lifted the cup a record five times, and only failed toreach the final in 2016.
Will the Gunners continue their dominance in thecompetition? Or can Chelsea, who sit above Arsenal in the Women’s Super Leaguetable, win the trophy at the first time of asking?
The journey so far
Emma Hayes’ Blues are unbeaten over 90 minutes this term.They defeated West Ham, Crystal Palace, Lewes and Tottenham in the group stage,before losing on penalties to Reading after a 1-1 draw.
From there, the West London side downed Aston Villa 3-1 lastmonth in the quarter-finals, before Maren Mjedle’s late goal edged outManchester United in a nervy semi-final clash, to hand Chelsea a place in thefinal for the first time.
As for Arsenal, the steamrolled their way through the group stages, beating London Bees 9-0, Brighton 7-0, Charlton 4-0 and London City Lionesses 5-0. Their only blip was a 0-0 draw at Brighton which saw the Seagulls win on penalties.
A tough quarter-final versus Reading followed, with Arsenal’sKim Little popping up with the winner just four minutes from time on her 200thappearance for the club.
Things were more plain-sailing in a 2-1 semi-final winversus Manchester City thanks first-half strikes from Dutch superstars VivianneMiedema and Danielle van de Donk.
Key players
Both teams have players capable of turning a game in aninstant. Chelsea will hope Beth England can continue her sensational form thisterm.
The 25-year-old has been plundering in the goals, and hasalready netted against the Gunners in Chelsea’s 2-1 and 4-1 Super Leaguevictories this season.
Boss Hayes can also call upon Australian Sam Kerr. The headlinearrival hasn’t hit the heights expected of her yet, but is a class act and onethe Arsenal defence will have to keep an eye on.
As for the Gunners, the aforementioned Miedeme is agoalscoring machine, having plundered 68 goals in just 72 Arsenal appearances,including 27 in 22 games this season.
And despite losing twice to Chelsea in the league thisseason, Arsenal boss Joe Montemurro has added ammunition at his disposal thisweekend.
Versatile winger Caitlin Foord arrived from Portland Timbersin January, and the Australian is set to make only her second appearance forthe Gunners after scoring on her debut against Lewes Ladies last weekend.
Match Info
Where: CityGround, Nottingham
When: 5:30pm, Saturday29th February
How to watch: BTSport 1 / BT Sport Ultimate
All odds andmarkets correct as of date of publication
