LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 18: Catarina Macario of Chelsea celebrates scoring her team’s second goal … More
Chelsea Women secured their second treble as they defeated Manchester United 3-0 to finish the season unbeaten in all 30 matches they played in domestic competitions this season.
A crowd of 74,412 saw Chelsea dominate the first half and through a goal scored from the penalty spot by Sandy Baltimore after a clumsy foul by Manchester United’s Celin Bizet on midfielder Erin Cuthbert just before half-time. Baltimore became only the second Frenchwoman to score in the Women’s FA Cup Final after Valérie Gauvin for Everton in 2020.
Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner sprung a major surprise before the game by not selecting the club’s record goalscorer Ella Toone in his starting eleven. Toone had opened the scoring for United in the previous year’s FA Cup Final and had scored in two other major finals at Wembley for England. She was understood to be bitterly disappointed with her omission.
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 18: Ella Toone of Manchester United inspects the pitch prior to The Adobe … More
When she came on at the start of the second half, Toone immediately galvanised a previously lacklustre United, who had failed to register a shot on target in the first period. She immediately created a heading chance for top goalscorer Elisabeth Terland before testing Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hamptom herself with a sharp volley.
Chelsea however, never looked in serious danger of relinquishing their lead and, in fact, stretched it with late goals from substitute Catarina Macario, assisted by a free kick from Baltimore who herself put the icing on the cake of her own matchwinning performance with her second in injury time.
Despite securing a conveted Champions League place for next season, Manchester United has ended the season without a trophy and having failed to win any of their last five matches going into the inaugural World Sevens tournament in Portugal this week.
On Friday, the English Football Association announced that 83,350 of the tickets at the 90,000-capacity stadium had been sold. Just over 24 hours later, all of the remaining tickets had been snapped up on the 10th anniversary of the women’s FA Cup Final being moved to the National Stadium in north-west London.
Then, as now, Chelsea were in the final, defeating Notts County Ladies 1-0 in a final watched by 30,710 and many doubted the wisdom of staging the game at such a vast venue. Two years later Notts County Ladies folded and withdrew from the top flight, relaunching a year later as Notts County Women.
That same month, the biggest club in the country inaugurated a senior women’s side and Manchester United Women were today playing in their third FA Cup Final in succession, winning their first-ever trophy against Tottenham Hotspur last season at Wembley.
The 2015 FA Cup Final was Chelsea’s first-ever major trophy but ten years on they have become the dominant force in English soccer, winning this season their sixth consecutive league title and now a sixth FA Cup. Going into today’s match they were unbeaten in all 29 domestic games they had played this season and were attempting to win their second treble of league, FA Cup and League Cup.
The two sides met at the same stage two years ago, with Chelsea winning 1-0. That game was watched by a world record crowd of 77,390 which broke the previous record for the competition (49,094) and also surpassed the all-time record for a domestic women’s club match of 60,739 set when Atlético de Madrid hosted FC Barcelona at the Wanda Metropolitano, which is still a world record for a women’s league game.
Among those in attendance were the co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, who this week was announced as a minority investor in Chelsea Women, together with his wife, the 23-time Grand Slam winning tennis legend Serena Williams.
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 18: Serena Williams and partner, Reddit founder and Chelsea stakeholder Alexis … More
The attendance also fell short of surpassing the crowd figure for the men’s FA Cup final which was played between Crystal Palace and Manchester City at the same venue the day before. 84,163 watched that game but the fact that both matches sold out the 90,000 National Stadium illustrates how the women’s game has earned its place alongside the men’s on the very biggest of stages.
