We are all well aware at this point that the times of easy matches in the Women’s Super League are over. That in large part because much like their men’s counterpart teams in the Women’s Super League have quickly learned how to counter and even curb the threats of the biggest clubs in the competition.
You can rely on a somewhat good goalkeeper that will almost always put on a workshop against such teams. You should always get players to be behind the ball and throw their respective bodies against it
whenever a shot is taken, whether in or out of the area. And when you get the ball somehow, punt it out and hope for a set-piece that can catch the opposing goalkeeper — who has barely done anything for centuries — off-guard.
At minute 20, veteran defender Molly Bartrip got the opening goal for Crystal Palace with a header from a corner kick.
Whatever comes after that is profit. Even a loss, because you at least bloodied a title challenger. If you can drag this out until the half-time whistle, you just need another 45 minutes of ultra-defensive football to at least get a point out of this match.
With Lauren James not even on the bench, the “moments of magic” she provided to get us a 6-2 win over Tottenham last weekend would have to come from someone else. Here enters Melvine Malard with a superb long-range effort to get us level only six minutes into the second half.
A draw wasn’t a bad result for Palace and they did what they could to keep things as such. Malard had different plans.
They could have come out of their shell to find the equaliser. Instead they kept turtling so much that Sandy Baltimore, having assisted Malard’s second goal of the day, got the chance to add a third for Chelsea from a penalty kick earned by the centre-forward. She did so, even though Palace’s keeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin nearly got the best of her.
Carefree!
- No Lauren James in the squad.
- One big chance, one goal for Crystal Palace in this first half.
- Thank you, Melvine Malard.
- Next up: AS Roma at home in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
- KTBFFH!
