Chelsea vs Manchester United | Women’s FA Cup Final Preview
A preview for Sunday’s Women’s FA Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium.
This Sunday is Women’s FA Cup final day and it’s Chelsea and Manchester United competing for the trophy this year and both have their own incentives to win it as well, with Chelsea aiming for an invincible domestic campaign winning all three trophies available for them to win in England whilst going unbeaten, whereas Manchester United are trying to retain the trophy they won in last season’s final.
Heading into this game, it feels like the pressure is on Chelsea a little bit given this weight of expectation on them to complete the domestic treble and with how good they have been this season. But, the FA Cup final does have this one-off game feel to it where you almost believe that form goes out the window and it ends up coming down to who the better team is on the day.
In recent seasons, Chelsea have won three of the last five finals, losing twice out of the seven times that they have made appearances at this stage of the competition. Manchester United on the other hand, are playing in their third straight Women’s FA Cup final, having lost their first to Chelsea back in 2023 through Sam Kerr’s 68th-minute goal in that 1-0 victory.
Last year saw Manchester United win their first major trophy in their history by winning the Women’s FA Cup final as they beat Tottenham 4-0 with goals from Ella Toone, Rachel Williams and a Lucía García double. If Chelsea win this year, it will be their sixth triumph in this cup competition and will take them level with Doncaster Belles in total.
How could both set up?
In both games where the two teams have faced each other this season, Chelsea have beaten Manchester United by the small margin of one-goal-to-nil, and it’s interesting to remember how those games went because in the most recent meeting, Manchester United had created some good chances and perhaps could have got the draw if they were a bit more clinical. The earlier fixture in the season wasn’t the most entertaining of games between the two if we remember, and it was Chelsea who had the better showing on that day which reflected the end result.
Confidence should still be there for Manchester United heading into this one on Sunday, but if we were to consider their recent form, then it’s not great reading for United as they haven’t won a game since they beat Manchester City in the semi-finals. Also, last time out against Arsenal where they lost 4-3 on the final day of the WSL season, things went wrong defensively for them having started with a back-three which looked like a setup that they struggled with.
Whether that was just done to not having tried and tested it enough or it not being suited to many of their players is up for debate, but you would have to think they don’t try it again unless it’s felt that they have to given the players they have available. Of course, Aoife Mannion will be available again after suspension, so she could fill in for Jayde Riviere as the Canadian defender is out of the final having not recovered from injury in time.
There’s a decision for manager Marc Skinner to make as well in terms of who starts up front, as we have seen in recent weeks that Melvine Malard and Elisabeth Terland have been in and out of the starting XI in recent games.
Terland has been the regular starter for much of the season while Malard has impressed off the bench at times, including scoring a crucial equaliser in Utd’s 2-2 draw with Man City recently. Terland also scored off the bench for United in the Arsenal defeat last week, so whoever doesn’t start could be key if United find themselves needing a goal.
Away from United and onto Chelsea next and it was interesting last Saturday to see them also adopt a three at the back, which also didn’t appear to work too well either and they ended up switching back to the back four during the game. Could we see it again?
It feels like they take a risk in adopting this strategy trying to make it work, which is done as a way to benefit the attacking abilities of Lucy Bronze, plus also Sandy Baltimore if she were to start on the left side, although she was playing up front last week alongside Aggie Beever-Jones.
However, it feels like Sonia Bompastor is trying to fit in three good defenders with Naomi Girma getting regular minutes after her recovery and Nathalie Björn recovering too from a short injury spell, while maybe not having the right setup in terms of the midfield that benefits them from a creative standpoint.
It’s going to be an interesting thing to see how they personally go about setting up because they will need that cutting edge to win and perhaps there will be a reliance on their creative players to bring that out. Beever-Jones has scored some crucial late goals lately so is there a possibility of her bagging her most crucial yet? There is a chance for Mayra Ramirez to feature with Sonia Bompastor confirming her availability for selection on Thursday.
Why this is important for Sonia Bompastor and Marc Skinner?
This cup final is a big one for both of the managers involved and you could say that it matters for both in different ways. Both will be wanting their teams to win of course, but the underlying reasons that the two of them will have do differ from each other.
Let’s start with Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor, who has overseen an incredible first season in England at her club which we all have watched and discussed many times over the course of the season having established this campaign as an invincible domestic run with no defeats to their name outside of the Champions League losses heading into the cup final on Sunday.
She will lead her team out at Wembley in a few days, making her first appearance in the national stadium since the 2012 Olympics, where she was a part of the France team that lost in the semi-finals of that women’s football tournament. While she missed out on history back then, she stands within just one game of completing something that will be remembered by many. One last chapter is left to be completed of this story of Sonia Bompastor’s first season in charge of Chelsea.
Now how about Manchester United manager Marc Skinner? Last season, he etched himself into history as the first coach to lead the United women’s team to some major silverware and now this season off the back of signing a two-year contract extension, winning the cup final once again and retaining the trophy, whilst also beating Chelsea for the first time under Sonia Bompastor could go a long way in further proving that he is capable of leading them to the next level.
He’s got it right before against a Chelsea side, but Sunday is the time where he and his team have to get those fine details correct to get over the line and win that second major trophy. It would be a huge achievement if they do it and they almost have to take the unpredictability that a cup final can bring and harness that by giving it all they can.