Chelsea book place in Continental Cup final with victory over Manchester United

Chelsea took a giant leap in their quest to win a third league cup in as many years after cruising past a spirited Manchester United outfit to reach next month’s final.

Emma Hayes’ in-form side lived up to their tag as favourites in the highly anticipated last-four meeting which exploded into life with four goals in the space of 13 minutes before the break.  

Two years ago, Hayes called for the Continental Cup to be scraped for the top two divisions in the women's game in favour of more league matches. “When you’re champions, you have something to protect,” said Hayes, when pressed on whether she still held that view. Ironically, her side have not lost a knockout fixture in the competition since those audacious remarks.

She added: “Tonight’s performance reminded me of the Chelsea of old in terms of the way we dominated physically. I thought we were aggressive everywhere.”

It was Chelsea’s Pernille Harder who broke the deadlock, latching onto a perfectly threaded through ball before turning Aoife Mannion inside out and coolly rounding keeper Sophie Baggaley to slot home. Jessie Fleming nodded in five minutes later, before United raced down the other end and responded through Vilde Boe Risa’s powerful strike.

But the cup holders strung together a series of slick passes up the pitch - instigated by the omnipresent Harder - which resulted in Jess Carter converting Reiten’s unstoppable low cross.

Marc Skinner, the Manchester United manager, felt aggrieved that two of his key players - Hayley Ladd and Ella Toone - were forced to miss the encounter after picking up two yellow cards each previously in the competition.

“The rules need to change next year,” he said, pointing out that his side were at a direct disadvantage to