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Chelsea’s defence of the Women’s FA Cup sees them take on Aston Villa in this season’s semi-finals.
The Blues have won three of the last five iterations of this competition, including the last two on the spin.
But Emma Hayes’ charges are running on empty – their WSL defence is ongoing while they are through to the last four of the Women’s Champions League.
Meanwhile, Aston Villa have broken away from the mid-table WSL pack and have established themselves as the best of England’s rest outside the title contenders. They are now 90 minutes from a trip to Wembley for a first ever Women’s FA Cup final.
Here’s 90min’s preview of the game.
Carla Ward did not disclose any new injury woes during her pre-match press conference, so it’s all hands on deck for Aston Villa.
Their last outing came a fortnight ago prior to the international break, losing this very fixture 3-0 against a rampant Chelsea side.
When asked on how her side will prepare to face the Blues this time around, Ward said: “Always respect them, but never fear them. They’re an unbelievable side with an abundance of world class talent, but this is a one-off game. The game before the break will help us.
“We’ve got players that have been in this position and players who haven’t. We’re going to need to rely on those who have been. We’ve got to give everything we’ve got.”
While Aston Villa are raring to go, Hayes’ squad is wearing a little thin but slowly starting to fill out again.
Though centre-backs Kadeisha Buchanan and Millie Bright are unavailable due to injuries, Hayes confirmed that everyone else has returned to training following the April internationals.
“We won’t have Kadeisha available, I don’t have a timeline for Kadeisha’s return, but we’ll have no Kadeisha and no Millie this weekend,” she began.
“Nothing changes because of that. We build a squad to prepare for these moments and players want this responsibility. There are players across our squad who want the opportunities, they want to continue to impress and the reality is we are a team full of international players, so we have the qualities to cope.
“Other than those two, we’ve been fine after the international break and everybody is ready to go. I thought the whole team today looked really fresh considering, but we haven’t had any major travel and that really helps after an international break. Everybody’s come back in really good spirits with good freshness.”
Read the latest Women’s FA Cup news here
Chelsea’s 3-0 win at the Bescot Stadium two weeks ago came as a bit of a shock considering their packed schedule and Aston Villa’s surge this season.
You’d assume that Ward and co will have used the international break to dive deep into their errors and find a new game plan to topple the holders.
Nevertheless, Chelsea should have enough quality to withstand any scheme Aston Villa devise.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1-2 Chelsea
