Sjoeke Nusken clinches seven-goal thriller as Chelsea reclaim second place in WSL

Chelsea reclaimed 2nd spot successful nan Women’s Super League aft clinching a seven-goal thriller astatine Kingsmeadow acknowledgment to Sjoeke Nusken’s winning strike.

Sonia Bompastor’s broadside are 9 points down WSL leaders Manchester City and aiming to unafraid a spot successful nan Women’s Champions League adjacent season.

Today’s lucifer looked to beryllium going against them aft they surrendered a 3-1 lead to Villa only for Nusken to occurrence location nan victor 8 minutes from full-time.

Villa took nan early lead aft Lucy Bronze gave nan shot distant to Chasity Grant who, successful operation pinch Lynn Wilms, slotted nan shot past Hannah Hampton astatine nan adjacent station pinch little than 2 minutes connected nan clock.

Chelsea responded successful nan 20th infinitesimal done Sam Kerr who burst done nan Villa lines to meet Nusken’s walk and guideline location nan equaliser from nan near broadside of nan box.

Those goals kicked started a thrilling 7 minutes arsenic Chelsea first went ahead, done Naomi Girma’s first ever WSL goal, earlier Lauren James accrued nan lead to 3-1.

Yet, Villa fought backmost done a quickfire brace from Kirsty Hanson who doubly sewage connected nan extremity of crosses from Wilms to level nan lucifer astatine 3-3 wrong nan opening 35 minutes.

The crippled settled down aft nan half-time break pinch nan 2nd half dominated by Chelsea’s control. Alyssa Thompson came adjacent to scoring but headed complete nan crossbar from 4 yards retired earlier Nusken settled nan conflict and collected nan 3 points.

“I deliberation it was a reliable crippled for us, and we are very happy we could people astatine nan end,” nan midfielder told Sky Sports aft nan win.

“The past 10 minutes we did a batch of pressure, truthful I deliberation successful nan extremity it was a deserved win. They are a really bully team. They scored 3 goals against america truthful I deliberation they’re showing what they can.”

She added: "It was a reliable game, really intense. Aston Villa showed what they could do. We fought good successful nan extremity and I deliberation it was a deserved win.

"We tried to support nan equilibrium [between onslaught and defence] pinch our midfield. It was a equilibrium betwixt going up and down pinch our midfield but I deliberation we did it really good and we didn't concede immoderate transitions successful nan end."

In Sunday’s different WSL matches, West Ham United were held ‌to a 1-1 tie astatine location by London ​City Lionesses. Jana Fernandez gave nan visitors nan lead halfway done nan first half earlier Oona Siren netted nan equaliser conscionable aft nan hr mark.

Meanwhile, bottommost broadside Leicester City went down 1-0 astatine location to Brighton & Hove Albion aft Kiko Seike’s 2nd half strike.