Manchester City thrash Brighton to seal Women’s FA Cup and historic Double
Ruthless Manchester City won the Women’s FA Cup for a fourth time and completed a domestic double as they eventually coasted to a 4-0 win over Brighton and Hove Albion, as Khadija Shaw celebrated signing her new contract with a Wembley goal.
Shaw and her City teammates provided Brighton with a harsh lesson on the importance of taking your chances in a final, with Brighton having looked the stronger side for large parts of the game but having lacked the clinical edge in the final third that the league champions demonstrated after riding out some Brighton pressure.
Shaw, who had been expected to leave the club this summer on a free transfer before performing a dramatic U-turn to sign a lucrative new contract on Monday, and she nodded her team in front at Wembley, before Alex Greenwood’s fine free-kick, Aoba Fujino’s deflected effort and Vivianne Miedema’s angled header saw City lift the cup for the first time since 2020, and for the first time with spectators permitted inside the stadium for seven years, as their most recent FA Cup triumph had been staged behind closed doors.
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Manchester City players celebrate after the FA Cup final. Photograph: John Walton/PA
Added to their first Women’s Super League title in a decade, the victory completed a memorable season for Andrée Jeglertz and his confident team, albeit the scoreline will have confused anybody who only watched the opening half an hour.
Brighton, who were playing in their first Wembley final and were seeking to win their entire club’s first major silverware, spurned good early opportunities for Fran Kirby and Kiko Seike, but City took the lead against the run of play, courtesy of the first genuine moment of quality they had produced in the match.
Greenwood’s dangerous cross from the left, sent deep towards the far post, seemed to hang in the air momentarily and was perfectly placed for Shaw, who out-jumped Chiamaka Nnadozie and nodded in. Brighton momentarily appealed for a foul on the goalkeeper but replays showed that Shaw’s leap had been a fair one and Nnadozie had simply been beaten in the air.
Greenwood’s reliable left foot was key to the second goal, too, just moment before the half-time whistle. Everybody in Brighton’s defensive wall looked to be expectingthe right-footer, Kerolin, to take the free-kick but Greenwood caught them, and Nnadozie, by surprise as she whipped her effort into the other corner. It was the City captain’s first goal for more than two years.
Shaw nearly had a second late in the game but her fierce, rising strike was touched over the bar by Nnadozie. Jade Rose then looped a volley over the bar, from a Shaw cross, at the second phase after a corner, before Shaw was given a well-earned rest and substituted amid warm applause. She was replaced a City fans’ favourite in Laura Coombs, who made her final appearance before retirement.
With their four titles, City are the fifth most successful club in Women’s FA Cup history, behind only Chelsea, Doncaster Belles (both six titles), Southampton Women’s FC’s eight cup wins and the record 14-time winners, Arsenal. All four of City’s wins have come since 2017.
