Tonight’s Continental Tyres League Cup semi-final was decided by an early strike. The England international, who was one of two changes to the side following her WSL suspension at the weekend, scored inside the first 10 minutes and Chelsea were on top for the rest of the first half.

Manchester City, who came into the tie off a run of 12 straight victories, had their best first-half moments right at the start. It was Chelsea who came closest to a second goal before the break when Sjoeke Nusken headed wide.

Emma Hayes’s side did have to cope with an early injury to Mayra Ramirez and then after the interval, deal with City finding their attacking threat. Hannah Hampton in the Chelsea goal was kept busy and made three sharp saves among other interventions, and ultimately the Blues proved resilient enough.

The Conti Cup final will be played against Arsenal, who beat Aston Villa yesterday, and will take place at Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Molineux Stadium on Sunday 31 March.

Prior to this game, Hayes had dismissed talk of it being a revenge mission for the narrow league defeat by Gareth Taylor’s side last month. However, with the other meeting with City this season serving up great drama when Chelsea equalised against nine-player opponents in the 96th-minute, and these two tied on points at the top of the WSL table, the stage was set for a mouth-watering semi-final.

The first half was steady if not spectacular for the visitors.

LJ doesn't hang around

Khadija Shaw, who scored the winner for City at Kingsmeadow, hit the side-netting and then headed wide early on but it was Chelsea who scored inside 10 minutes. City paid a heavy price for a loose touch inside their own half. Tonight’s captain Erin Cuthbert seized on it and set Ramirez off on the attack. The Colombian found James whose shot took a slight deflection off City skipper Alex Greenwood and beat Khiara Keating at the near post.

That great start almost became a fantastic one when the home side erred on the ball again, but Ramirez’s shot was deflected wide.

Lauren Hemp made a chance for herself at the other end but shot over and with that went the last truly dangerous attempt at goal for 20 minutes. Chelsea must have been comfortable with that. Though not threatening to add to our lead, we looked in control with the game being played the way we wanted it.

Change is forced

However, there was disruption when Ramirez had to come off with an injury after 33 minutes. Aggie Beever-Jones, who scored in the previous Conti Cup round, was her replacement.

Heading towards half-time, it was Chelsea’s turn to lose the ball near our goal but Nusken came to the rescue to thwart Shaw’s pass to Chloe Kelly. It was a busy couple of minutes for our German defender who narrowly missed scoring from a corner at the other end. The first half ended with the Blues one goal to the good.

Chelsea have to dig in

As at the start of the first half, Shaw was dangerous for City at the beginning of the second. Hampton saved well from the Jamaican but the home side continued to play at a higher tempo than before.

On 56 minutes, our goalkeeper did even better from close range to deny Laura Coombs who met a cross.

It had always seemed likely City would have a spell of pressure at some stage and this was it. Eve Perisset cleared hurriedly at the far post as Shaw sent the ball towards the target.

Hampton was at it again with 63 minutes on the clock, getting down quickly to keep out a Shaw shot. Hayes reacted by bring on Johanna Rytting Kaneryd. James swapped flanks.

The Blues were getting some important tackles in but could not turn them into moves inside the final third.

Another substitute, Sophie Ingle, shot over from a corner as we looked to ease the pressure. City continued to press forward but their best chances had now gone. They did not make the most of two late free-kicks just outside the penalty area and Chelsea cleared off the line after a corner in added time.

It was tense, and when the final whistle was blown, it was very welcome from a Chelsea point of view, and it also kept the quadruple very much on the agenda.

What it means

Chelsea are into the final of the Conti Cup for the fifth season running. Having lifted the trophy at the end of those first two appearances, we were less successful the past two years including last time against Arsenal. Time for a re-match!

What's next?

On Sunday it is the second of back-to-back cup games when the Blues travel to play Everton in the FA Cup. Kick-off on Merseyside is at 1pm.

After that we return to the Women's Super League title race when the leaders take on third-place Arsenal. That match is on Friday 15 March (kick-off 7pm) and with over 25,000 tickets already sold, a bumper crowd is expected! Click for tickets

Chelsea Hampton; Perisset, Carter, Nusken, Charles; Cuthbert (c), Leupolz; James, Cankovic (Ingle 77), Reiten (Rytting Kaneryd 64); Ramirez (Beever-Jones 33)
Unused subs Berger, Musovic, Hamano, Kirby, Macario
Scorer James 8
Booked James 90+4

Man City Keating; Casparij, Aleixandri, Greenwood (c), Ouahabi (Fowler 76); Hasegawa; Kelly, Park, Coombs (Angeldahl 81), Hemp; Shaw.
Unused subs MacIver, Stokes, Houghton, Morgan, Mace, Kennedy
Booked Kelly 56

Referee Andrew Kitchen