I went and watched Reading v Chelsea in the FA WSL yesterday and thought I would attempt writing a match report. It was a cloudy and cool late morning/early afternoon at the Select Car leasing Stadium. This would be Chelsea’s third game in the last 6 days whilst Reading had had nearly 3 weeks off since their last match.
Reading opened the scoring after 4 minutes when Deanne Rose broke forward, played a one two and finished past Musovic. Chelsea looked dangerous from corners with Leupolz and Kerr both going close. Andersson saw a shot from the edge of the area go over as Chelsea continued to create chances. Millie Bright had a shot blocked on the line by Gemma Evans before Eikeland was booked for a foul. Evans blocked another shot on the line this time from England before Sam Kerr shot over. Reading went into the break leading 1-0 in what had been a bit of a dis-jointed first half with a number of stoppages and Chelsea not at their best.
Emma Hayes made a triple substitution at half time with Kirkby, Harder and Reiten all coming on. Chelsea movement was quicker at the start of the second half as Sam Kerr had an effort blocked and Reiten put a curling effort wide. Reading had a penalty appeal turned down before Harder had a few off target headers for Chelsea. Reiten had a shot from the edge of the area easily saved before Moloney saved with her legs from Kerr but the offside flag had gone up. Chelsea had a number of chances in the last 10 minutes as they were still looking for an equaliser with Ji having a shot blocked, Leupolz heading at the goalie, Kerr having a header saved and Kirby shooting over. In the three minutes of injury time, Chelsea had an effort go right across goal before Reiten had a shot deflected wide. Musovic came up for the corner but it came to nothing as Reading won 1-0 thanks to Rose’s early goal.
A tremendous defensive display from Reading, especially Gemma Evans who made a number of important blocks and they stopped Chelsea scoring for the first time in the WSL since October 2018. Reading moved up to 5th in the league and with Chelsea losing, Arsenal now have the chance to go 4 points clear at the top when they play Leicester City this evening.
Paul's Football Page 