Ahead of Chelsea Women’s return to Kingsmeadow against West Ham in the Continental Tyres Cup, Adelina Engman discusses scoring her first goal of the season, her personal aims and her excitement for Sunday.
The 24-year-old came on as a substitute late on in last weekend’s league encounter against Brighton and Hove Albion when the Blues were urgently seeking an equaliser. Within 10 minutes of coming off the bench, the Finland international restored hope by netting from close range in stoppage time to ensure we came away from Sussex with a point, which was the least Chelsea deserved.
Engman joined the Blues in the summer of 2018 and out of 22 appearances in all competitions managed to find the net five times last term. She shares here her personal aims for the 2019/20 campaign, with more time on the pitch at the forefront.
‘It was great to score, but I’m sad that we didn’t win,’ she said. ‘I thought we were the better team, we had opportunities to score but had some troubles finishing them.
‘I didn’t play that much last season so of course I want to play more this season, that’s my main goal personally. I want to get more playing time and just try to improve in training every day.
‘I would like to start every week but we have such tough competition in the team and great players in all positions so I’m just happy if I get on the pitch,’ she continued.
Being unable to finish chances regularly appears to be an ongoing matter for our Chelsea team, having narrowly won our opening fixture against Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 and drawing 1-1 last week. It is crucial the Blues are clinical in front of goal with tomorrow expected to be a difficult test against the 2018/19 FA Cup finalists.
‘I would say the main area we need to work on is scoring, I think we create enough chances in games so we just need to take the chances and score,’ said Engman.
‘West Ham are a very good team, I feel like all the teams are getting better. All the games are tough and it’s going to be a difficult match. We just need to take our chances in front of goal, that’s the most important thing.
‘We want to win cups as well as the league. We have got quite a tough group, at least compared to last year. We just need to play at the level we know we can play, hopefully we can do that on Sunday and bring that into the league as well.’
As well as West Ham, Chelsea have been grouped with Reading, Lewes, Tottenham and Crystal Palace.
Read our full match preview
It has been a while since Chelsea have played at our KT1 home, with the last time being at the end of April against Lyon in the semi-final of the Women’s Champions League. Although we began our Barclays Women’s Super League campaign at Stamford Bridge by hosting Tottenham Hotspur, the forward has expressed her excitement in playing back at Kingsmeadow.
‘It’s going to be great to play in front of the home crowd again,’ she said.
‘I’m really looking forward to it, hopefully they come in numbers and sing loud and clear because the support really helps us along.’
Tickets for this Continental Tyres League Cup fixture are priced at £3 for adults and £1 for junior (aged under 20) and senior fans (aged 65 or over).
Women’s season tickets are still available for just £49 for the whole season. Junior fans (aged under 20) as well as senior fans (aged 65 or over) can enjoy the whole season for just £5!