The 2019 Women's FA Cup final (known as the SSE Women's FA Cup Final for sponsorship reasons) was the 49th final of the

Women's FA Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup, and now Women's FA Cup (currently known as the Adobe Women's FA Cup for sponso ...

, England's primary

cup competition A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

for

women's football Women's football most often refers to: * Women's association football Women's football may also refer to: * Women's gridiron football * Women's Australian rules football * Ladies' Gaelic football * Women's rugby league * Women's rugby union ...

teams. The showpiece event was the 26th to be played directly under the auspices of

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

(FA). The final was contested between

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

on 4 May 2019 at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

in London. It was Manchester City's second appearance in the final of the Women's FA Cup having won the 2017 final. It was the first FA Cup final for West Ham United and also their first appearance at the national stadium. Manchester City won the game with three second-half goals from

Keira Walsh Keira Fae Walsh (born 8 April 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Women's Super League club Chelsea F.C. Women, Chelsea and the England women's national football team, England women's national team. She is ...

Georgia Stanway Georgia Marie Stanway (born 3 January 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Frauen-Bundesliga club Bayern Munich and the England national team. Stanway started her senior career at Blackburn R ...

and

Lauren Hemp Lauren May Hemp (born 7 August 2000) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Women's Super League club Manchester City and the England national team. With City, she is a FA Cup and League Cup winner, and with England; ...

to record their second Women's FA Cup victory in three seasons. The result meant that City went through the entire FA Cup campaign without conceding a goal, and completed their first domestic cup double. As their men's counterpart won the

2018–19 FA Cup The 2018–19 FA Cup (also known as the Football Association Challenge Cup) was the 138th edition of the oldest football tournament in the world. It was sponsored by Emirates and known as The Emirates FA Cup for sponsorship purposes. It start ...

, Manchester City became the fourth club, after

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, and Chelsea, to win both the men's and women's FA Cup in the same season.

Route to the final

Manchester City

Manchester City were one of 22 WSL and Championship teams to enter the competition in the fourth round proper and were drawn against

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

team

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

. Substitute

Nikita Parris Nikita Josephine Parris (born 10 March 1994) is an English professional footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Women's Super League club Brighton & Hove Albion W.F.C., Brighton & Hove Albion and the England women ...

finally broke the deadlock in the 62nd minute, the first of her two goals on the day as City won 3–0. City traveled to

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

side

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

for the fifth round, securing a second consecutive 3–0 victory in the competition before repeating the result once again in the quarter-finals, this time against WSL opposition as

scored a second half brace following Janine Beckie's opener against

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

to secure Manchester City a semi-final place for the fourth season in a row. Manchester City were drawn against familiar opposition for the semi-final in Chelsea: it was the fifth time in six seasons the teams had met in the FA Cup, with the previous three also occurring at the semi-final stage. Chelsea had emerged victorious on all four of the previous occasions including the previous season on the way to winning the trophy. Despite controlling the game and creating more chances, a freak

own goal An own goal occurs in sports when a player performs actions that result in scoring points for the opposition, such as when a Association football, footballer puts a ball into their own net. In some parts of the world, the term has become a met ...

Magdalena Eriksson Magdalena "Magda" Eriksson (also Ericsson; born 8 September 1993) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays for Frauen-Bundesliga side Bayern Munich and the Sweden national team.

West Ham United

West Ham United were one of 22 WSL and Championship teams to enter the competition in the fourth round proper and were drawn against

team

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. The third division team took the lead through Natasha Flint before the Hammers equalised on the stroke of half-time through

Adriana Leon Adriana Kristina Leon (born October 2, 1992) is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer player who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the Canada ...

. Brianna Visalli put West Ham ahead after the break before Canadian international Leon scored her second goal of the game to secure a 3–1 victory. For the fifth round, West Ham were drawn at home to third division opposition for the second consecutive time in

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

. The visitors once again took the lead as captain Kate Mallin buried a 14th minute

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

into the top corner but

Alisha Lehmann Alisha Debora Lehmann (born 21 January 1999) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Juventus and the Switzerland national team. She is the most followed woman footballer in the world on Instagram. Club car ...

leveled eight minutes later. By half-time, West Ham were leading 4–1 and scored another four in the second half including a hat-trick by

Leanne Kiernan Leanne Kiernan (born 27 April 1999) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Women's Super League club Liverpool F.C. Women, Liverpool and the Republic of Ireland women's national football t ...

to eventually win out emphatic 8–1 victors. Jane Ross scored the only goal of a 1–0 quarter-final win over

side

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

to send West Ham through to the team's semi–final appearance. With only WSL teams left in the final four, West Ham finally met first division opposition for the first time in the competition as they traveled to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

in the semi-finals. After a goalless first half,

Rachel Furness Rachel Furness (born 19 June 1988) is a former professional footballer She is the record goalscorer for the Northern Ireland national team. Club career Early career Furness attended Usworth Comprehensive School and represented Durham at County ...

put the home side ahead in the 49th minute. Just like in the fifth round, West Ham found an equaliser through

eight minutes later. With the teams locked at 1–1 after

extra-time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

, the tie was eventually settled in a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. 3–3 after five penalties each, the shoot-out entered sudden death:

Anna Moorhouse Anna Victoria Moorhouse (born 30 March 1995) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Orlando Pride of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the England national team. She previously played in England for Eve ...

saved Reading captain Jade Moore's weak attempt before South Korean international

Cho So-hyun Cho So-hyun (, ; born 24 June 1988) is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Women's Championship club Birmingham City and the South Korea women's national team. She is widely regarded as one of South Korea's ...

stepped up and stroked the ball into the top corner to book the Hammers' place at

. The latter portion of West Ham's FA Cup run featured heavily in the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

behind-the-scenes documentary '' Britain's Youngest Football Boss''.

Pre-match

West Ham asked the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

that their men's fixture against

at the

London Stadium London Stadium (formerly and also known as the Olympic Stadium and the Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) is a multi-purpose outdoor stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the Stratford, London, Stratford district of London. It is loc ...

be moved from a 15:00 kick-off to 12:30 so fans attending that match could also make it to Wembley to watch the final. The request was denied by the Premier League.

Match details

References

External links

* {{Manchester City W.F.C. matches

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

Women's FA Cup finals Women's FA Cup Final Women's FA Cup Final FAC 2019 West Ham United W.F.C. matches Football competitions in London Sports events at Wembley Stadium