That's why Chelsea want Bunny Shaw! Winners and losers as Man City goal-machine punishes potential suitors to end Sam Kerr's FA Cup dream

If there is still a chance that Man City and Shaw can negotiate a new deal, then the striker's performance in Sunday's semi-final was a reminder that the club should be doing everything possible to keep her around.

For the most part, it was a difficult day out for Shaw. She had plenty of shots from half-chances and struggled for quality service, with Kadeisha Buchanan and Veerle Buurman doing a good job of restricting her space and making life hard for her.

However, when the going got tough, and the moments became bigger, she stepped up in a huge way. Her turn and finish for the equaliser was an excellent piece of centre-forward play, while her header in extra time was outstanding.

Shaw is a world-class centre forward and this was further evidence of as much. For City to lose her this summer would be a massive blow. Regardless, she has one more opportunity, at Wembley on May 31, to bid farewell on a high note, having delivered another wonderful moment here at Stamford Bridge.

For a while, it looked like Keating was going to be the goalkeeping villain in this game. It was her error that allowed Kerr to nod Chelsea 2-0 ahead and seemingly move the tie out of City’s reach.

However, Hampton’s own moment to forget was the one that put the final nail in Chelsea’s coffin in extra time, while Keating came up with a big stop in the dying minutes to preserve her side’s 3-2 lead.

It came at a frantic point of the additional period, when the game resembled more of a basketball match than anything else, and when one City attack petered out and gave Chelsea a goal-kick, Hampton reacted quickly to try to kickstart another move for her side.

But her usually accurate distribution was off and her pass was nowhere near its intended target, instead finding the feet of Hasegawa. At the same time, the Chelsea defence had no idea about the restart and were still slowly getting out of the box. It was the perfect recipe for City, with Hasegawa able to deliver the right cross to capitalise, one which Shaw brilliantly headed into the far corner.

For most of the afternoon on Sunday, Shaw was quiet and Buurman, Chelsea’s 20-year-old centre-back, was a big reason why. It looked like a mismatch, in truth, in terms of experience, physicality and proven quality at the highest level. But the promising Netherlands international stepped up to the challenge brilliantly and, working well with Buchanan, left Shaw struggling to make her mark.

That was until the 70th minute, when Bompastor opted to replace Buurman with Lucy Bronze. The Chelsea boss said after the game that it was a change she made in order to deal with the new threat that Kerolin, moved from the right wing into a No.10 role, posed. However, it served to allow Shaw’s influence to grow on the game, with Bronze unable to marshall her quite as well as her younger team-mate.

In a season that began with Buurman on the fringes of this team, in her first year with the club after a loan back at PSV, this was a moment that highlighted how important she has grown to be already.

Before the script was rewritten for Shaw, it seemed like it was scribed for Kerr. The iconic Australia forward looks set to depart Chelsea this summer, meaning this could be her penultimate game for the club - unless they made the final. When Kerr headed in just before the hour then, to seemingly punch the Blues' ticket to Wembley, it felt fitting.

So many of the striker's biggest moments for Chelsea have come at Wembley, the venue she calls her favourite and a place at which she has never tasted defeat. For her to have the chance to go back there, and for it to be her final game in the club's colours, would be a fairytale ending, if indeed she could help the Blues win yet again.

However, in a game in which she had another two goals ruled out, one for what looked a correct offside call but another in more controversial circumstances after Carpenter appeared to have kept the ball in before crossing, Kerr would eventually end up on the losing side.

Her final Chelsea game is now likely to come next week, in a meaningless meeting with Manchester United. It's not what Kerr's script-writers would have had in mind.

It's been a tough season for Fowler. After suffering an ACL injury at the back end of last season, the Australia international has spent most of this year rehabbing, with her impact on City's WSL triumph limited as a result.

But on Sunday, Fowler was able to have her big moment when she produced a brilliant strike to kickstart this remarkable comeback. It came just moments after the talented forward had entered the game and was a perfect encapsulation of what makes her so great, as she was able to pick out the bottom corner from range out of seemingly nowhere.

Shaw will grab the headlines but it was Fowler's strike that gave City the belief that they could complete the turnaround they eventually did. She deserves that moment after a really difficult season.

After enjoying a dream first season at Chelsea, Bompastor's second at the club has been closer to a nightmare. Injuries have caused her plenty of headaches and played a large role in restricting this team from competing for more, with a rebuild looming this summer in which the Frenchwoman will strive to make her mark on the squad in a greater way.

But there have also been questions raised of Bompastor and her subs on Sunday were another instance. Removing Buurman proved to be the wrong decision, with Thompson's withdrawal also a surprise given how effective she was.

Still, the manager was relatively helpless as she watched her side collapse in the final few minutes. Regardless of opinions of the players on the pitch, there was enough experience and quality and out there to see the game out and there was little Bompastor could do about the fact they didn't.

This is Chelsea's worst season in seven years; not since they ended the 2018-19 campaign trophyless have things been as disappointing for a club used to winning. Bompastor, who was given a new deal earlier this year, will have time and opportunity to get things on track but there is clearly plenty of work to be done, even if the Blues still managed to lift the League Cup in March.