Manchester United are into their third Women's FA Cup final in a row
The holders are into another final after beating their rivals Manchester City in today's Women's FA Cup semi-final.
So we now know who will contest this season’s Women’s FA Cup final and it will be Manchester United who will take on yesterday’s fellow semi-final winners Chelsea at Wembley Stadium next month after they won the Manchester derby today by two goals to nil.
Things couldn’t have gone better to start the game for United as they got on the front foot and took the lead in the opening six minutes when a fantastic ball from Ella Toone found Celin Bizet who made the run behind the defence, touched the ball down well and then brought it back with composure and whipped the ball into the right corner.
It was such a good goal from a United perspective. Ella Toone managed to pick out Celin Bizet with that pass and timed it brilliantly seeing that run that Bizet would have known to have made at that moment, taking advantage of a poor defensive shape from Man City’s defence.
Following that, the Norwegian then has to have a lot of poise in working a chance out of it and she did it really well as she opened up the space and hit the ball with it swerving towards the post. City keeper Khiara Keating wasn’t getting near the effort, truly a top-class finish from Celin Bizet.
From then on in that first half, Manchester United were pretty much flawless in how they operated whether they had possession of the ball or not. They were looking way more dangerous out of the two sides and Man City just couldn’t get anything working for them.
United were just too dominant when actually in the final third of the pitch and they could have had more than what they got given the first-half showing. The second goal was a simple one right from a fairly routine corner as Gabby George swung it in and Grace Clinton was able to get away from her marker and head the ball into make it 2-0 to her side. Defensively City had problems again, although their problems were about to mount even more.
In a moment before the second goal, Man City’s Mary Fowler had gone down with what looked like an over-extended knee when she lunged in for the ball and with her down on the ground instantly it wasn’t looking good for her. Thankfully, the Australian forward did stand up again after a couple of minutes, but in the aftermath of the second goal, Fowler was substituted and appeared to not be walking right as she went around the pitch.
The first half overall felt completely controlled by Manchester United and it wasn’t feeling like this closely-fought derby game that we may have wanted to see from a neutral perspective. There were flickers of something by Manchester City mainly coming from their Brazilian forward Kerolin, but you could see they were just struggling to take a chance.
Nick Cushing’s side had to find a way back into it in the second half and that was easier said than done given the nature of Manchester United when they are off the ball and hard they could make it for them to make a comeback.
City had improved and were getting into the final third a bit more and it did feel like a different team at times from that first half performance. There was a bit more composure about them even if they weren’t causing much harm to United’s defence and to Phallon Tullis-Joyce in goal.
The closest that City went was in one attacking phase as Yui Hasegawa hit a free-kick at the crossbar which was saved onto it by Tullis-Joyce, who then had to make another save off the rebound once it came back down from the air. Lily Murphy managed the chance but Tullis-Joyce was able to block it with her leg and once the ball was cleared she could let out a huge roar and hold her arms out after making two pivotal saves.
There were a couple more stoppages with players receiving treatment and City couldn’t get the goals required as United held out well and booked their place at Wembley in the cup final for the third season in a row, giving them the chance to retain the Women’s FA Cup when they face Chelsea next month.
Marc Skinner’s side are back at Wembley again
It’s another trip to Wembley Stadium in May for Manchester United fans as they see their team make it to a third-straight final in this competition and they were the better team on the day, having too much for their rivals in the end, controlling the game as mentioned and overall made themselves tough to beat.
Marc Skinner and his team will be chasing success again after their achievement last season when they beat Tottenham 4-0 in the final for their first-ever major trophy. An interesting thing to note is that both of their goal scorers in this semi-final were both on the opposition side in that final last season.
Celin Bizet has proven to be a very good buy for United this season and Grace Clinton has done very well following her loan spell at Tottenham last year and if you remember she didn’t get to play in last season’s final due to the rule of not being able to face your parent club. So it is a nice thing for her that she will get to walk out at Wembley and actually play in the final this time as long as she does start that game against Chelsea.
The final next month will also be a rematch of that final from two seasons ago as well when United came away as the losers to Chelsea when Sam Kerr scored the matchwinner back in 2023.
It is a great achievement from Manchester United to get there again and one that Marc Skinner will have been thrilled to have managed once again as well. His contract extension is a talking point that has split opinion amongst United fans, but it’s hard to ignore the results on-field and the good work done in progressing this season with the opportunity for them to retain the Women’s FA Cup being right in front of them.
No trophies for Manchester City as the injury troubles hit them hard
While it has felt like progress has been made by Manchester United this season, it has been a bit of a backwards step for Manchester City and this loss means they will be trophy-less this season and with the positioning in the league how it is, it’s hard to see them finishing in the top three of the WSL.
The pressure was put onto City right from the off and they found it hard to deal with, then things were made worse with the injury to Mary Fowler which if you are a City fan you’re hoping isn’t as bad as feared initially when you see her holding her knee.
Not to mention the fact that this means another player could be injured for them, adding to a growing list which is quite something when you go through the names. The TV camera even showed many of them all sat together in the stands at one point and you could pick out an endless array of talent and players who are so important to the club.
Vivianne Miedema was the latest addition before the game when it was confirmed in Nick Cushing’s pre-match press conference and then Jill Roord also picked up an issue in international duty. When your luck’s out, your luck’s out and you do have to consider the injury problems when evaluating how this season has panned out for Manchester City.
Their squad feels depleted right now and it feels like reflections will begin now on this poor campaign by their own standards. Having gone close to winning the league less than twelve months ago to a season where they have changed managers, lost a cup final and now face missing out on playing in the Champions League having done okay in that competition at times this season. It’s all ending rather disappointingly for Man City.
