Chelsea Women 2-0 Leicester City Women: Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby on target for WSL champions

WSL match report as Chelsea beat Leicester City 2-0 at the Cherry Red Records Stadium; substitute Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby are on target for the hosts, who move third in the table; the visitors stay bottom having yet to pick up a point so far his season

By Richard Morgan, Football journalist @Richiereds1976

11:40, UK, Wednesday 03 November 2021

Highlights from the Women's Super League match between Chelsea Women and Leicester City Women

Late goals from Pernille Harder and Fran Kirby saw Chelsea beat newly promoted Leicester City 2-0 in the Women's Super League on Sunday.

The WSL champions were made to wait until seven minutes from time, though, to make the breakthrough at the Cherry Red Records Stadium when substitute Harder fired home after a short corner.

Kirby wrapped up the win in the 94th minute with her 50th career goal in the WSL as Emma Hayes' side went third in the table, while the visitors stay bottom as they still look for their first points of the season.

How the teams lined up | Match stats
Get Sky Sports | Get a NOW pass for £9.98
WSL fixtures | Results | Table | How to follow the WSL on Sky Sports

How Chelsea finally broke down a stubborn Leicester

While many may have arrived at the Cherry Red Records Stadium predicting a cricket score as the WSL champions hosted a newly promoted Leicester side looking to get off the mark this season, they were much mistaken as Jonathan Morgan's team produced a disciplined display.

As expected, the hosts dominated possession and territory throughout, with Kirstie Levell increasingly busy in the visitors' goal as the Leicester No 1 producing a number of impressive saves.

Levell did well to beat clear Jessie Fleming's rasping early drive and as well as the goalkeeper, the Leicester defence also stood firm to keep out everything Chelsea could throw at them in the first half.

Team news

Chelsea made seven changes from their midweek Champions League draw with Wolfsburg, where they came from 3-1 down to draw 3-3.

Meanwhile, Leicester were again missing Charlie Devlin due to a persistent ankle injury, although Shannon O'Brien had recovered from an ankle knock and started as the visitors made just the one change from their match against Spurs last time out.

Lachante Paul and Sophie Barker were also unavailable, alongside long-term absentees Abbi Grant and Connie Scofield. Mackenzie Smith was on international duty with England Women U17s and did not feature.

Hayes wasted little time in bringing on both Harder and Sam Kerr at the break as the hosts cranked up the pressure on their opponents, playing against Chelsea for the first time, only for an inspired Levell to keep the scoreline goalless with a series of impressive stops.

One Levell save in particular, however, took the breath away as the 'keeper somehow managed to turn over Kerr's close-range header when the opening goal seemed certain.

Eventually, though, Chelsea's pressure told as from a short corner, Fleming picked out Harder in the box and the substitute kept her cool to find the bottom right-hand corner of the net as Hayes' side scored for the 56th WSL game in a row dating back to October 2018.

Chelsea confirmed the win in injury time after some route-one football as Kerr flicked a long ball on for Kirby to latch on to, with the striker making no mistake with a low finish into the corner of the net.

What's next?

Chelsea travel to Juventus for a Champions League group-stage clash on Wednesday night, while Leicester are in action next on November 3 when they host Everton in the WSL Cup.