Manchester City WFC 1-1 Chelsea FCW, WSL: Post-match reaction

Chelsea have squandered a golden opportunity to collect three points away to title-rivals Manchester City, despite enjoying a numerical advantage for much of the game ... though we did at least belatedly scrape a late equalizer, thankfully.

A most card-happy referee made herself the star attraction of the afternoon by handing out yellows for anything even remotely resembling a foul, not to mention dissent and even time-wasting. It was the latter two infractions in fact that got Alex Greenwood sent off in the 38th minute. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a player given their second yellow for time-wasting in the first half of any game!

Chelsea were behind 1-0 by then, with Chloe Kelly beating Zećira Mušović in the 7th minute on a slightly deflected long shot as the home side enjoyed a bright opening quarter of an hour.

Chelsea threatened the City goal just once in the first half despite generating double-digit shots, but 19-year-old Khiara Keating made an excellent stop on Sophie Ingle’s stooping header on a corner.

The second-half was all one-way traffic, with City even going down to nine in the 81st minute when Lauren Hemp also collected her second yellow. But Chelsea were largely inert until Guro Reiten was able to scramble home an equalizer in the 6th minute of eight minutes of added-on time at the end — with City playing with eight in that moment as Alanna Kennedy was receiving treatment on the sidelines.

That led to a frantic closing few minutes, with Sam Kerr hitting the post — Chelsea’s third woodwork of the night — but a winner would elude us.

1-1.

Carefree.

• Erin Cuthbert, Jessie Fleming, Ashley Lawrence make their first starts of the season. Kerr starts on the bench, on at the half.
• Hopefully Guro Reiten’s injury at the very end is nothing serious
• Chelsea’s eight-match winning streak in all competitions dating back to last season is over
• Next up: Everton in the WSL Cup on Wednesday
• KTBFFH