West Ham Women are looking to reach the FA Continental League Cup final for the first time when they host two-time winners Chelsea to the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Thursday evening.
The Hammers have reached the semi-final stage on just one occasion in the 2020/21 season when they were beaten 6-0 by Emma Hayes' side. They'll hope for a different result this time around as they look to book their spot in the final showdown against either Arsenal or Man City.
Chelsea, on the other hand, have won the competition twice before in 2020 and 2021, but lost out to Man City in the final last term. If they're to progress against West Ham, it will be the Blues' fourth appearance in the final.
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West Ham come into the game on the back of a hard-fought 0-0 draw against Arsenal at home on Sunday. Chelsea beat London rivals Tottenham 3-2 last time out and also knocked out Spurs in January to reach this stage of the competition.
The Hammers' route to the semi-finals saw them top group C with one win and two draws before they narrowly beat Liverpool 1-0 in the quarter-finals. Manager Paul Konchesky insists they're not putting too much pressure on themselves to see of Chelsea.
"I think it would be fantastic if we could do it, this group of players and staff really deserve it because they work incredibly hard," he told whufc.com. "For me personally, it would be special to reach a final in my first season as a manager - but we don't want to put too much pressure on ourselves.
"We know it will be tough against Chelsea, but if we perform to the levels that we know we can reach then why can't it be us?"
West Ham can take plenty of confidence from the result against Arsenal and the fact they have five clean sheets in their last seven matches in all competitions. "As much as we need to worry about Chelsea, we also need to worry about ourselves," Konchesky continued.
"We will work a lot on the way that we play to try and limit the threats that they have whilst also having another eye on how we hurt them. They've got a lot of quality in attacking areas, but so do Arsenal and a lot of other teams in the WSL - so we've shown that we can compete with them."
West Ham will be without Jess Ziu on Thursday and the manager also admitted the game could come too soon for new signing Amber Tysiak. The winner of the game will book their spot in the final of the competition at Selhurst Park on March 5.
In the WSL meeting between the two sides back in September, Hayes' side secured a 3-1 victory at Kingsmeadow. Dagny Brynjarsdottir gave the Hammers an early lead inside the opening five minutes, but the hosts pulled it back courtesy of goals from Fran Kirby, Sam Kerr and Millie Bright.
West Ham have reached just one domestic final in their history as they lost out to Man City in the 2019 Women's FA Cup Final under Matt Beard.
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