PURPLE - Trent Alexander-Arnold

THIRTY THREE

24/2/2019

Ella was nervous to say the least.

She had been playing for Chelsea since she was 6 years old and today was her first final with the team she loved and called her family - granted it was the Carabao cup final but to her every game with her club was immensely important, especially if a trophy was on the line

And sadly Trent wasn't able to be there and watch because he was playing against Man United since he had recovered from his ankle injury in January and wanted to spend every minute he could on the pitch

But luckily for her Mason, Tammy, Declan, her father and her godfather had all come to Wembley to watch and support her which made her even more excited to play, but also very nervous.

Ever since the game against Man City in December Ella had been back on her brilliant goal scoring form, scoring 13 in her last 15 games and with the Europa league round of 16 coming up it was exactly what Chelsea needed

Right now the Chelsea team was having their pre game talk from Maurizio Sarri and every word he was saying was hitting Ella right in her heart

"Tonight is your chance to take home a trophy for this club, tonight is a chance for all of you to go out there and show the world what Chelsea is made of. For the young players, tonight is your chance to make your mark in English football. You have all worked so hard to get here, don't let it go to waste now. Give this game your everything from the first whistle, stick to the plan unless I say otherwise and most importantly: win."

Ella took a deep breath and the team left the dressing room, walking out into the Wembley stadium ground and the atmosphere hit her immediately

The Chelsea fans were booming, but still over all of them her friends and family were Ella's loudest supporters in the crowd. She smiled up at her three best friends, dad and godfather as the Chelsea starting 11 lined up to face the fans

The music barely hit Ella's ears as the fans continued to scream and chant in excitement, and once it was over all the players took off their team jackets and headed onto the pitch in their positions to start the game

Ella took her place by the ball but Raheem would be taking the first pass for Man City, the two England internationals shared a quick hug before it was time for kick off

The second the ball was passed to Aguero, Ella's mind went into game mode as she focused on nothing but the match ahead of her

Chelsea were throwing everything they had at the game as they pushed as hard as they could to take home this trophy. But the first half of the game ended 0-0 with the only interesting thing being David Luiz getting a yellow card for a harsh tackle on Amara Miller

The second half was only slightly more gripping, Aguero had two shots on target and during both, Ella's heart would sink to her stomach in fear, only for the shots to be saved by Kepa

And then Hazard and Ella had a moment of genius as they broke free of the Man City players marking them and made a run towards the Man City goal, making small constant passes between them

As they reached the edge of the penalty box Ella passed the ball back into Eden's feet and he lined up the shot against Ederson, but before the ball could leave his feet he was suddenly pushed to the ground by Kyle Walker

"What the fuck?!" Ella shouted at the Englishman who stood behind Eden with his hands raised in innocence

"I didn't touch him!" Kyle shouted back

"Yes you did! I just watched you!" She exclaimed 

"He dived over!"

"Stop lying!" Ella retorted "Fucking admit it!"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Kyle glared down at her "You're no one but Beckham's daughter!"

"You better learn my name since you'll be seeing my name on the score sheet bitch," Ella argued "And who the fuck are you? You got replaced in the England squad by an 18 year old at the World Cup."

"Fuck you," Kyle practically spat at her

"Hey!" Callum Hudson-Odoi shoved Kyle back as he stepped between them "Back off!" Callum and Ella had also grown up at the Chelsea academy together and tonight was a special night for them as they finally got to play together for the senior team

But even though Kyle was 27 and Callum was 18, Callum wouldn't let anyone speak to his friends that way and he wasn't intimidated by the Man City player at all, especially if he was going to speak to Ella that way

The referee walked over to the three players and pulled them all apart before the argument turned physical, and he told them there would be no penalty for Chelsea as the incident took place before the penalty box

So instead it would be a free kick and Eden held the ball out to take but she was still so angry after the incident and let him take it instead. But his shot was saved anyway.

And then the final whistle blew and the score was still 0-0 so the game would be moving into extra time. All the players got to have a quick rest and take a water break for a while before they went back onto the pitch to start the next half an hour

The first 15 minutes were tense as both teams had two shots on target with neither one going in, and as the teams went into the final 15 minutes the aggression and anticipation upped from both teams as they could feel the trophy almost at their finger tips

The 120th minute still ended with 0-0 which meant the game would be coming down to penalties and this was something Ella had been dreading since kick off

"Hey." Maurizio Sarri placed a hand on Ella's shoulder before she followed her team to the penalty box "Take a deep breath, you're going to be great. Don't let them pressure you." Ella nodded thankfully and jogged over to the box 

Beth England would be going first for Chelsea and her shot was saved by Ederson, then Amara Miller scored for Man City. Next for Chelsea was their captain Azpilicueta who scored, but then so did Aguero

Up next was Ella and she placed the ball down on the penalty spot, looking up at Ederson who was bouncing on his feet. Ella closed her eyes for a moment and let out a breath before she jogged on the spot to warm herself up before she sprinted at the ball and smashed it past Ederson into the goal

Caroline Weir knew very well who Ella Beckham was, and as she took the penalty for Man City, her mind was only on the English girl who had gone before her and it caused her to miss the penalty over the crossbar

If Luiz could score the next penalty and Silva missed then Chelsea would be crowned Caraboa Cup champions 2019. But sadly the opposite happened as Luiz missed and Silva scored which really did take it into the final round

After Hazard scored, all the Chelsea players had their hearts in their throats as they needed Sterling to miss so they could move onto one more round and have a chance to take the win

But then Sterling scored and Man City were given the title of Caraboa Cup champions right in front of Ella's eyes and she felt her heart sink.

Ella had pushed herself so so hard tonight in the hope of bringing home this trophy for her childhood club but it had been snatched from her fingertips. Ella sat herself on the pitch grass and put her head in her hands as she replayed every moment of tonight and thought of all the moments where she could have done something differently to give her team the win

"Hey," Ella looked up from her hands as Eden crouched in front of her "It isn't your fault, Ella, there are more trophies waiting for you at Chelsea. Tonight wasn't our night but next time it will be."

"Thanks." Ella smiled tiredly at him.

Eden looked at Ella like a little sister as she played in the position next to him on the right and he had seen how nervous she had been when she first joined the senior team so he had always taken her under his wing as his partner on the field

Ella knew he was right, she was only 20 and even though tonight wasn't her night, next time could be and there was no point crying or getting upset over losing one trophy when she had a long career and probably several more trophies ahead of her