Wembley - Arab Today
‘It’s just about sunk in,’ she beamed after getting her hands on the FA Women’s Cup for the ninth time in her career with her fifth different London club.
‘Winning the FA Cup at Wembley is an unbelievable feeling. The dressing room was crazy, there was a lot of dancing and champagne, we just enjoyed the moment. As a club we deserved it.
‘All of my previous FA Cup have been really, really special but it’s nice to win one with Chelsea and help bring the club to where it’s got to. It’s a magical moment.
‘It is important we win silverware. We have had massive support from the club and now it can only get better.’
Chapman lifted the cup aloft alongside Claire Rafferty, who has been at Chelsea for nine years and played every minute of the victorious cup run
‘I couldn’t be more over the moon about finally winning something at this club. We knew we had to minimise their dominance at free-kicks and set-pieces so succeeding with that helped us to win the game.
‘There was no stage in the game where I didn’t think we were going to win. We probably should have been up by a few more goals but in the end the one goal was enough to win the game and that’s the most important thing.’
Gilly Flaherty also helped the defence to a third clean sheet in four in this competition
‘As a back five, we pride ourselves on clean sheets. We’ve let ourselves down in that department in the last couple of weeks but we managed to keep Notts County quiet and made sure that one goal at the other end was enough.
‘It was an amazing occasion to be a part of. One of the reasons I came here was to win silverware with this club so it’s very special and emotional for us all. We came close last year, losing in two semi-finals and on the final day of the WSL 1 season, but today we went one better and got the win.’
Right-winger Gemma Davison was a constant thorn in the Notts County defence
‘I have only been at the club since January so to be a part of it all is incredible. The question now is whether we can build on it.
‘I have faith in the players here; I wouldn’t have come to the club if I didn’t think we could win trophies. We’ve got Eni, we’ve got Ji, we’ve got Gilly and Niamh at the back, we’ve got a world-class goalkeeper.
‘We had a couple of rough games before this but we’ve got a lot of character and talent in the squad alongside some great coaching staff and now we’ve got to build on what we have done.’
Like Davison, Swedish international goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl signed ahead of the 2015 campaign
‘It was quite a calm day for me. We knew if we gave away one chance they would have been able to use that. You always have to be switched on but in the end I didn’t have to do a lot because their attacks ended at our defensive line.
‘It was my first experience of Wembley and I loved it. It was a good pitch and the crowd were really doing their bit for the whole event. I’m very happy.’
At the other end, Ji So-Yun scored the game’s only goal, just as she had done in the semi-final against Man City
‘It was a great chance created by Eni [Aluko] and I just knew I had to take the opportunity. It was a once-in-a-lifetime goal.
‘I’m very happy and proud of my team. I’m thankful to them for making this happen and really happy to help the club win its first trophy. Chelsea Ladies is already a great team and we get a lot of respect from people for that but now it’s going to get even bigger and I’m very pleased to be a part of it.’
Source: Chelsea FC