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The quarter finals of the Subway Women’s League Cup took place on Wednesday evening with eight teams in four games.
Armory There are current holders of the competition who are narrowly defeated Chelsea 1-0 in extra time at Molineux last year. The Gunners have also won the competition more than any other team, with seven titles to their name, since then Manchester City on four.
Five of the eight places in the quarter-finals were decided by the group stage which took place in the first half of the season. The remaining three spots were reserved for teams participating in the group stage Champions LeagueSo Chelsea, Arsenal and City entered the competition at this point.
This year’s final will take place on March 15 at Pride Park, the home of Derby County Football Club. The capacity of the stadium is over 33,000 and this will be the first time that the final of this competition will be held there.
Here, 90min breaks down everything that happened in Wednesday night’s quarter-final games and what happens next…
Durham were the lowest-ranked team remaining in the competition after the group stage, so the Championship club had an important task going up against Chelsea in the first knockout game. They held their ground for the first 20 minutes at Kingsmeadow, but Aggie Beaver-Jones broke the deadlock soon after.
Midfielder Orion Jean-Francois added a second with a superb strike just after the hour mark to put the result beyond doubt and a flurry of goals followed for Chelsea. Erin Cuthbert, Guro Reiten and Mika Hamano scored the third, fourth and fifth goals in a span of five minutes between the 73rd and 75th.
A second Manchester derby took place at Leigh Sports Village within a week, but it did not witness a goal-fest at the Etihad on Sunday evening. On this occasion Manchester City opened the scoring after 12 minutes and it was Laura Combs with the goal.
Manchester United Defender Millie Turner leveled the scoreline just after the 30-minute mark, but City responded quickly to restore their lead. 18-year-old Lily Murphy scored the winner for City on the brink of half-time as Gareth Taylor’s side avenged their weekend defeat to their bitter rivals. WSL.
Arsenal travel to face Brighton, who have enjoyed a promising first half of the season in the league. It was a scrappy affair at the Broadfield Stadium as the games remained goalless for more than an hour.
In the space of five minutes in the second half, René Slagers’ side brought the game back to life with three goals through Frida Manum, Katie McCabe and Kyra Cooney-Cross. Mariona Caldanti then added a fourth in the closing minutes as Arsenal kept their hopes of retaining the trophy alive.
The final game of the evening was between Tottenham and West Ham, who had both qualified for the knockout rounds by topping their respective groups. Spurs struck first at Brisbane Road as Martha Thomas opened the scoring for the hosts on 10 minutes.
The visitors then fought back valiantly before the half-time whistle as Kirsty Smith immediately put them ahead before Serena Puebel got them back on level terms. A goalless second half meant that it was West Ham who progressed to the semi-finals of the competition.
Winner of SF 1 vs Winner of SF 2 – Saturday 15 March
