Sonia Bompastor named an unchanged Chelsea side for the final game of the season against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, May 24, 2024, and Sam Kerr started in what was billed as her final appearance for the club.
The selection — Hampton, Carpenter, Buurman, Buchanan, Charles, Nusken, Cuthbert, Walsh, James, Thompson and Kerr — kept faith with the side that had closed the campaign, while a bench that included Peng, Spencer, Baltimore, Sarwie, Kaptein, Potter, Rytting Kaneryd, Ramirez and Beever-Jones gave Bompastor cover across the pitch. Mayra Ramirez made the bench for the first time this season after recovering from the injury she suffered in pre‑season against AC Milan at Kingsmeadow.
For supporters searching chelsea line up today, the unchanged XI carried more than normal seasonal weight: Sam Kerr had been announced during the week as departing Chelsea at the end of the season, and the match at 13.00 BST (8am EDT) presented a final home curtain call at Stamford Bridge, SW6 for two major figures in the dressing room.
Millie Bright, after 12 years at the club, used the occasion to say goodbye to Chelsea fans, a moment that underlined the farewell significance of a fixture that was otherwise a routine Women’s Super League match. The referee for the game was Mel Burgin.
The simple arithmetic around Kerr’s final outing sharpened the stakes. One goal on May 24 would have equalled Fran Kirby’s club goalscoring record; two would have overtaken it and made Kerr Chelsea Women’s all‑time highest scorer. The manager’s decision to keep Kerr in the starting XI ensured she had the maximum opportunity to chase that record on her home turf.
The match was not televised in the United Kingdom or the United States, but viewers could stream it on Sky Go in the UK and on + and fuboTV in the USA. Manchester United named Tillis‑Joyce, Sandberg, George, Le Tissier, Toone, Malard, Rolfo, Riviere, Zigiotti, Wangerheim and Hinata as their starters, with Rendell, Jansen, Lundkvist, Turner, Awujo, Park, Naalsund, Schuller and Terland available from the bench.
Context matters: this was Chelsea Women’s final game of the season and arrived after a campaign in which the club had already secured the Women’s League Cup but, by the source account, did not meet the high standards set in other competitions. That mixed season framed the send‑offs for Bright and Kerr and helps explain why Bompastor opted for continuity rather than rotation on a day heavy with farewells.
The selection choice also carried a small but real tension. With departures and long club histories in play, an unchanged line‑up read as a vote of respect and a desire to close together; it also closed the door on giving extended minutes to fringe players in what was, for some, a final act. Mayra Ramirez’s return to the bench for the first time this season after her pre‑season injury was a reminder that squad recovery and personal comebacks were threaded through the fixture.
Bompastor’s unchanged XI delivered a clear message: finish the season with the players who had carried the club this year, give Sam Kerr the stage to chase club records, and let Millie Bright complete a 12‑year chapter in front of the home crowd. The telling fact now is whether those decisions left either player satisfied by what they achieved on the pitch in their farewells.
