The absence of fans has been keely felt this last six months but the empty seats are rarely as jarring as at a cup final. While multitudes thronged Wembley’s adjacent retail park this increasingly gripping 50th women’s FA Cup final played out in eerie, echoing emptiness.
Not that this prevented Manchester City joyously celebrating their third success in four years, nor eased Everton’s pain after a performance of heroic resistance exemplified by Izzy Christiansen and Sandy MacIver. Eventually it was fatigue that beat them as much as City’s class, substitutes Jess Park and Georgia Stanway weaving past tired legs for the latter’s killer 111th-minute goal. Cruelly another sub, Janine Beckie, added a third with the last kick of the match.
City manager Gareth Taylor, a trophy-winner in only his tenth match as a manager, said: “We controlled most of the game but desire and will got us through. You do begin to wonder if it is not going to be your day but we kept knocking on the door and eventually it opened. We now want to make history and win the FA Cup twice in one season.”
Everton 1-3 Manchester City
Everton (4-2-3-1): MacIver; Moe Wold, Finnigan, Sevecke (Pattinson, 90), Turner; Christiansen, Egurrola (Stringer, 99); Sorensen, Graham (Pike, 90), Raso (Boye-Hlorkah, 75); Gauvin (Magill, 90).
Manchester City (4-1-2-3): Roebuck; Bronze, Houghton, Greenwood, Stokes; Walsh; Mewis, Weir; Kelly (Beckie, 109), White (Stanway, 63), Lavelle (Park, 70).
Referee: R Welch.
Player of the match: Christiansen.
Taylor unexpectedly deployed Alex Greenwood, usually a left-back, in central defence, and US World Cup-winning midfielder Rose Lavelle on the left flank. City are spoilt for choice in midfield and this did shoehorn Lavelle into the XI but her limited impact indicated Taylor is still assessing how best to use his talented squad.
Willie Kirk has had two years to stamp his personality on Everton. Though they began nervously – only Christensen had ever played on this stage – they were organized enough to keep City at bay in open play. By the time Sam Mewis did break the deadlock Everton had settled. They absorbed the blow before replying similarly through Valerie Gauvin. Thereafter, before City’s superior squad depth and quality told in extra-time, the final was anybody’s.
Kirk said: “I am very proud of the players, they gave absolutely everything they had in the tank. City deserve it, but we created chances and pushed them. That will inspire us to come back.”
City had established an early mastery of possession, their initial attacks coming down the right where Chloe Kelly, who began the competition in Everton’s colours, was an immediate threat. However, their supremacy was nearly their undoing as they became sloppy. In the 16th minute Hayley Raso stole the ball after Steph Houghton failed to control a pass from Demi Stokes. As Raso bore down on Ellie Roebuck she was tackled by Lucy Bronze. The tackle looked good but referee Rebecca Welsh judged it a foul. Having made that decision it was hard to divine why Bronze was then given a yellow card, not a red.
At the other end MacIver had largely been untroubled but Greenwood’s corners were always a threat and, five minutes before the break, Mewis rose high to become the third American to score in a Wembley FA Cup final following Carli Lloyd for City in 2017 and Christian Pulisic for Chelsea in the men’s final this year.
Shortly before the hour it could have been all over. Weir, fed by Lavelle, hit the post, Kelly smashed the rebound goalwards, but Christiansen and MacIver, throwing their bodies in the way, deflected it over. A minute later Everton were level as Gauvin headed in Christiansen’s corner.
The Frenchwomen might have won the game a dozen minutes later when she got across Greenwood to meet Nicoline Sorensen’s driven cross, but her header flew wide. Roebuck also had to turn Sorensen’s cross over as it arrowed goalwards but thereafter she was a spectator as City regained control.
Weir might have twice won the game in injury time, shooting over from Stokes’ cut-back then hitting the bar. In extra time Megan Finnigan’s last-ditch tackle denied Stanway then MacIver turned Houghton’s header against the post. Finally Park cut in from the right and fed Stanway whose shot squeezed inside the near post to break Everton’s hearts.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3eeKBrk
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