Jonna Andersson relishes Chelsea meeting with City in League Cup final

When Chelsea and Manchester City step out at a sold-out Plough Lane on Saturday, somewhat incomprehensibly it will be the first time English football’s two dominant teams of recent years have met in a cup final. Since 2014 they have played one another in seven semi-finals and two quarter-finals and the Chelsea full-back Jonna Andersson is relishing the Continental League Cup final.

“Finally,” she says. “We always say that we’re going to get them in the semi-finals. We were quite surprised when we didn’t, and now it’s finally a final. Hopefully both teams are happy about it because it’s a good final for us to play but also for people watching.”

Chelsea are six points above City in the league with a game in hand and have done the WSL double over them, but any suggestion that Saturday may not be a contest would be far from the mark. City staggered early in the season, hindered by injuries, losing seven of their first 14 matches in all competitions. Since then, though, they have had one defeat in 12 games: 1-0 against Chelsea.

Chelsea faltered, too, picking up one win in five after their swashbuckling 3-0 defeat of Arsenal in the FA Cup final at the start of December, but are since unbeaten in six. Emma Hayes’s side are perhaps still favourites, although we are yet to see whether the off-field turmoil around the club seeps on to it. For Andersson, dealing with City’s potent wingers Lauren Hemp and Jess Park will be key.

“They have so many good players and especially wingers that like going forward with a lot of pace and that are very good one versus one,” she says. “We just need to focus on our gameplan and what we can do, but of course we need to try to stop them as well because we know that’s one of their biggest threats.”