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Kelly Chambers reiterates that “anything is possible’ ahead of Reading's FA Cup quarter final tie

Reading boss, Kelly Chambers speaks to the media ahead of her side’s FA Cup quarter-final clash with Chelsea on Sunday.

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Getty

16 March 2023

Kelly Chambers confirmed that she has no new injury concerns heading into the match up with Chelsea: “No nothing new, we have a full squad. Everyone that was available for Arsenal is available. Hopefully we should have Deanna Cooper back in the next week or two which will be nice.”

 

Chambers confirmed that Deanne Rose’s ACL recovery is going well: “She's actually going really well. We're hoping that she's going to be back for just towards the end of the season, which is a lot earlier than we thought. Progress is going really well, so if everything maintains that we're way we're hoping that she could be fit for then and then hopefully fit for Canada and the World Cup which is obviously a big priority of her. It's just nice to see her out there.”

 

When asked if she relishes coming up against one of the biggest teams in the country Chambers replied: “Yeah, that’s what the FA Cup is about, it’s about playing against top teams and with the exception of last week [4-0 loss to Arsenal] we like to raise our game against them [the best teams in the country]. We have obviously had a strong analysis of the Arsenal game, it was a game we were very disappointed in, in terms of performance. So that’s definitely something to put right for this weekend. We want to show a bit more aggression and a bit more of us. We’ll be going into that with a positive mindset and making sure that we put stuff right that we weren’t happy with on the weekend.”

 

Chambers was asked if it’s a case of focusing on her sides strengths as opposed to Chelsea’s threats when creating a game plan, in which she replied: “Yeah, definitely. I think the one thing we weren't happy with at the weekend was just our identity, we didn't show that against Arsenal. We're normally quite aggressive defensively, we like to be front footed, and we didn't show any of that the weekend.


"So, it's just about us getting back into the mode of us and really thinking about what we what we want to get out of the game. We don't hide from the fact that Chelsea do have a lot of threats and a lot of quality. But I think Chelsea has always been a team that we've  always had a good game against them.”

 

On whether her relationship with Emma Hayes makes playing Chelsea more of a special occasion Chambers said: “When the whistle blows we're very much in in competitive mode, and we'll have our own stuff on the pitch. I think it's actually quite nice that it will be Mother's Day. We will both be there as two mums in the league which is nice. She’s helped me in many different ways and vice versa.


"It's nice to have those types of people to lean on, not just for football, but for people that are in the same shoes as you that live in the same life. In terms of everyone knows how intense it can be, whether it's them trying to win the league, or us to try and stay up. And obviously, the whistle goes at the start of the game, and it becomes competitive. But literally, as soon as that's over, it's back to normal.”

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