Natasha Flint seals 'fairytale' win for Leicester City Women

[ASFN Admin]

Crystal Palace Women 0 Leicester City Women 1 Leicester City manager Jonathan Morgan said it was a “fairytale to make club history” as they reached the Women’s League Cup semi-finals for the first time thanks to Natasha Flint’s dramatic 89th-minute winner at Crystal Palace. The second division leaders' late victory saw them continue their impressive season in all competitions, keeping alive their cup ambitions while they also bid for promotion. Palace, who are eighth in the Championship, should have taken the lead inside 10 minutes when Aoife Hurley side-footed a volley just over the bar from seven yards when the goal had been gaping. It was a glorious chance that Palace would later be made to regret spurning. Leicester, who won 4-1 away at Palace in the league in October, did not find their true rhythm until after half-time, when they began to generate overloads in wide areas through winger Lachante Paul. Paul was denied by a smart save from Palace keeper Emma Gibbon, just after the hour mark, before Flint then missed an excellent chance, blazing over from close range, but her moment to shine was still to come. Just as the tie looked set for a stalemate in the 90 minutes, Leicester won a central free-kick, just outside the penalty area, and Remi Allen rolled the ball back for Flint to lash a fierce strike into the top corner to send the visitors through. Morgan, whose side do not yet know their semi-final opponents, told Telegraph Sport: "We’re elated and hopefully we can go one step further to the final. This is a little bit of a fairytale for us, we’ve made club history. “I started to think it was going to be ‘one of those days' [but] the girls thoroughly deserve it, not just today but across the season, with all the hard work they’ve put in. They deserve the accolades and the rewards of the big games.” Match details Crystal Palace (4-5-1): Gibbon; Johnson, Hurley, Clifford, F Morgan; Wilson (Waldie, 71), Georgiou, Churchill, Goddard (Haines, 68), Baptiste; Hincks (Natkiel, 71). Subs not used: Taylor, Rutherford, Goddard, Morgan. Leicester City (4-5-1): Levell; Cataldo, Howard, Plumptre, De Graaf; Fergusson (Cain, 66), Allen, Tierney, Thomas (Devlin, 59), Paul; Flint. Subs not used: Harris, Rigler, Everett, Smith, Farrow, Littlejohn. Referee: Lisa Benn {Berkshire).

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