Don't mess with Millie Bright! Winners and losers as Lionesses star locks down Khadija Shaw to start Chelsea's trophy charge while Man City will pay heavy price for repeat failure to serve frustrated Vivianne Miedema

Chelsea did not bring in Bompastor because they wanted to win the League Cup. After years of trying to win the Champions League, it's clear that, after Emma Hayes' departure, the club believes she could be the manager to deliver that, having won the title as a coach and a player at Lyon. However, picking up the first silverware of the season is only going to increase the confidence in this team as they bid to get their hands on the one trophy missing from their collection.

It's not easy to win the League Cup, either. Chelsea had made the last three finals of this competition and lost them all. For Bompastor to come in and get over this first hurdle, then, is a great result and, as she noted, it will certainly give her team a psychological boost as they prepare to face the same opponent three more times, including in games that do have an impact on that European game.

City made a huge call this week when they opted to part ways with head coach Gareth Taylor and bring back former boss Nick Cushing until the end of the season. It was a decision that came just five days before Saturday's final and it certainly would not have aided their preparation for this match, which they ultimately lost.

That's not to say City lost because they replaced Taylor with Cushing, but it is a call didn't provide any immediate advantage when it came to winning this final. Will it have a greater impact down the stretch, as the team aims to qualify for next season's Champions League while hoping to go deeper into this year's competition? Only time will well.

Ramirez has had some real stand-out moments in her Chelsea career to date and Saturday's match-winning performance was another for her collection. The Colombia international was an absolute nightmare for City to deal with, be it because of her runs in behind or her ability to put teams on the back foot with how dangerous she is when driving with the ball.

It was the former which gave her the two biggest chances of Saturday's game, including the goal she scored. In truth, Ramirez really should have had two, having rounded Ayaka Yamashita just before the half hour mark but hit the side-netting rather than making it 2-0 to Chelsea. But she didn't let her head drop and continued to work hard to be a nuisance and it was more good movement which put her into the position to deliver the cross that Hasegawa turned into her own net to decide the match.

There are not many defenders who would fair well in an individual duel with Ramirez. She's quick, she's strong, she's extremely intelligent with her movement and she is bursting with the confidence that makes her stand up to her marker and run at them. Laia Aleixandri certainly felt the brunt of that on Saturday.

The Spain international is already in a tough spot, as the senior figure needing to hold down the centre of City defence hampered by injuries. Her strong partnership with Alex Greenwood was broken up by the England star's knee surgery in December, then January signing Rebecca Knaak, who settled in nicely enough to win her first Germany cap in February, sustained a hamstring issue that has sidelined her.

Aleixandri is now partnering 20-year-old academy product Gracie Prior, whose place in the team on Saturday felt like a possible risk. However, it was her more experienced team-mate who Ramirez often placed herself next to, sensing that she had the better of that individual duel - and she was right. The Colombian's movement often left Aleixandri in the wrong positions to react and that proved costly.

Prior, however, had a fantastic game despite the eventual result. It was only at the start of this month that she made her first senior start at centre-back, having played on the right up until that point, and she looked shaky in that game, a 1-1 draw at West Ham. On Saturday, though, she was impressive. The youngster intervened well when needed, stood up to the battle with Ramirez when she drifted to her side and looked good on the ball, too, which she saw plenty of.

"I think it's difficult as well when an opposition sets up to allow you to have the ball and to almost make you the player that's making the game," Cushing said of Prior afterwards. "But I thought she grew into it. I thought you could see she was really decisive and played forwards and created our attacks and in defending moments, she showed that she's got the real potential to be a top central defender in this league."

Vivianne Miedema didn't hide her feelings on the pitch on Saturday. She was frustrated. She had the fifth-fewest touches of any player to start the game, and second-fewest among City's representatives, just two of which were in the opposition box, and only one shot. Part of that is down to her needing to get more involved in the game, sure, but there were several occasions on which she found herself in a good position, only to watch a team-mate waste possession.

If City want to win any of these games against Chelsea, they need their best players to make an impact. Miedema is one of them, one of the best in the world in fact. They cannot allow her to be as quiet in the next three games as she was in this one. They need her talismanic qualities to be on show if they are to have success this season. Both player and coach need to make sure she is more of a factor.

There has been a lot of pressure on Millie Bright and Nathalie Bjorn in the last few weeks, as Chelsea's only two fit centre-backs. Fortunately, they've both been playing brilliantly throughout this spell, with Bright in particular an outstanding performer on Saturday. The Blues captain was tasked with keeping Khadija Shaw quiet and she did so wonderfully, so often getting in the way of the striker's shots and restricting her space in dangerous areas with some great defending. Indeed, Shaw had 10 efforts in the final, five of which were blocked and just one of which was on target.

"Her performances have been great," Bompastor said of Bright after the game. "She's really having an impact on the team. I'm really pleased for her because she's a really good player, but also a good person. It's always positive when one of your leaders, and the main leader in Chelsea, is performing at that level. I think she just sets the tone for everyone else and as a captain, she shows the example."

It was cruel that Saturday's deciding moment was an own goal, but particularly an own goal scored by Hasegawa. Since her arrival in Manchester in the summer of 2022, the Japan international has established herself as one of the best holding midfielders in the world, despite arriving as a player who played further forward. It has been an incredible transformation and has made her one of City's most consistently outstanding players over the last three seasons. To see the disappointment on her face as she inadvertently directed Ramirez's cross into her own goal on Saturday, then, will have been tough for City fans, but also admirers of her game in general.

"She's disappointed, naturally," Cushing said afterwards. "She's an incredible person so she feels like she was the deciding factor, but that's not the case. I don't think we can hold a player accountable when she's been probably our best player all season." Hopefully, that is a message that Hasegawa receives plenty in the aftermath.