Kerr knows this territory, admitting herself she’d “never been [to Wembley] and not won a trophy”, a brazen, if not dangerous gift of schadenfreude for any other player if the sentiment does not ring true once the 90-minute clock runs dry.
But this is Kerr, and the FA Cup final is ultimately the feeding ground for the Australian striker, and by extension defending FA Cup champions Chelsea. The requisites for claiming a fifth title and a third on the bounce are etched in their DNA, if not the stars. So while an anaemic first half against a dominant United threatened to upset the status quo, it was Chelsea who emerged victorious to keep their ambitions of the domestic double alive in front of a record British domestic crowd in the women’s game.
Manager Emma Hayes made three changes to the side that thrashed Leicester 6-0, with Kerr returning to the striker’s position over Pernille Harder and Maren Mjelde and Jessie Fleming coming in for Jess Carter and Jelena Čanković. The decision looked immediately to be a dangerously misplaced one as Mjelde failed to clear Ella Toone’s cross into the box and Leah Galton converted beyond Ann-Katrin Berger but the offside flag spared Chelsea early blushes.
The early warning became thematic of the first half, in which United routinely overwhelmed Chelsea’s defence as the Blues acquiesced to errant passing and sloppiness in possession to cut themselves a disjointed facsimile of the beast that has come to be synonymous with big occasions such as this one.
But the introduction of Pernille Harder and Sophie Ingle 10 minutes after the restart proved decisive, and it took the Dane just 13 minutes to register her sixth goal involvement for Chelsea in three matches as she scythed down the left touchline to latch onto Guro Reiten’s through ball and cross a brilliant ball into the path of Kerr, who could do little else but bury the shot beyond Mary Earps.
