Arsenal & Chelsea Reach Continental Cup Final After Both Beating Manchester Clubs

​Arsenal and Chelsea will contest the 2019/20 final of the FA Women’s Continental Cup next month, having each emerged victorious in their semi-finals against Manchester City and Manchester United respectively on Wednesday night.

The final will be played at the 30,000-seater City Ground in Nottingham on 29th February.

Arsenal are record winners in this league cup competition and were keen for revenge on City, who beat the Gunners in a penalty shootout to lift the trophy last season.

Vivianne Miedema gave Arsenal an early lead at their Meadow Park home inside the first six minutes. The Dutch striker then turned provider for international colleague Danielle van de Donk to double the advantage shortly before half time.

City defender Gemma Bonner halved the deficit on the hour mark, but the visiting Sky Blues couldn’t give manager Nick Cushing a famous victory in his penultimate game in charge.

Cushing is to leave City after the weekend to take up a coaching role with MLS club New York City. His last game will be Sunday’s WSL clash with Arsenal in Manchester.

In the other semi-final, it was an even tighter affair and only a single second-half goal from Chelsea midfielder Maren Mjelde could separate the two sides up in the north west.

It is surprisingly a first ever final for Chelsea in this competition, despite their strength and success in both the WSL and FA Cup in recent years.

United, who were targeting cup success in their debut season as a top flight club, have now been knocked out of both cup competitions in the space of a few days. This defeat comes after Saturday’s narrow FA Cup fourth round exit at the hands of Manchester City.

United and Chelsea will meet again in the WSL on 9th February. Before that, however, the former faces a trip to Reading this coming weekend, with the later hosting West Ham.

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