![<p>The Women’s FA Cup trophy at Wembley before the final between Chelsea and Manchester United</p>](https://i0.wp.com/static.independent.co.uk/2023/05/14/11/GettyImages-1490015656.jpg?ssl=1)
The Ladies’s FA Cup trophy at Wembley earlier than the ultimate between Chelsea and Manchester United
(The FA through Getty Pictures)
Chelsea face Manchester United within the Ladies’s FA Cup last at a sold-out Wembley Stadium.
It’s the primary time within the competitors’s historical past that every one tickets have been bought for the showpiece event, and a crowd of virtually 90,000 will likely be in attendance as Chelsea and Manchester United battle for the FA Cup – a document for a girls’s membership match in England.
Serial trophy winners Chelsea are aiming to raise the FA Cup for the third straight yr beneath Emma Hayes, whereas Marc Skinner’s up-and-coming United aspect are taking part in of their first Ladies’s FA Cup last – 5 years on from the group being launched in 2018.
Each groups are competing to win the double this season, with United main defending champions Chelsea by some extent within the Ladies’s Tremendous League – though the Blues have a recreation in hand.
Comply with reside updates from Wembley as Chelsea and Manchester United play for the FA Cup.
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023 LIVE: Chelsea vs Manchester United
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Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: ‘Manchester United lives in my coronary heart’
Soccer runs in Katie Zelem’s blood. The Manchester native began taking part in on boys’ groups with Failsworth Dynamos earlier than she was scouted by Manchester United aged eight, and he or she remained of their youth system earlier than becoming a member of Liverpool in 2013 – 5 years earlier than United would type their present girls’s aspect.
A spell at Juventus adopted earlier than Zelem returned to her girlhood membership, the place her 11 targets from 23 appearances helped earn United promotion to the WSL of their debut season.
4 years later her aspect stay on track for double silverware, with Chelsea – 4 factors again within the WSL however with two video games in hand – their foremost challengers in each competitions. A maiden Ladies’s Champions League berth can be tantalisingly shut after three consecutive fourth-placed finishes.
Zelem, who at eight was a males’s Champions League flagbearer at Previous Trafford, stated: “At any time when anyone asks me, Manchester United all the time lives firmly in my coronary heart and captaining Manchester United, making my United debut and positively this second will likely be up there with my highlights.
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 12:29
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: Katie Zelem on household’s Wembley historical past
Manchester United captain Katie Zelem is keenly conscious each membership and household bragging rights will likely be on the road when she leads out her aspect at Wembley for Sunday’s Ladies’s FA Cup last.
The midfielder’s Ladies’s Tremendous League-leading Pink Devils will look to unseat FA Cup holders Chelsea and declare a primary main home trophy once they meet on the residence of English soccer, which has bought out for the primary time within the competitors’s historical past.
It was on the outdated Wembley the place, 34 years in the past, Zelem’s dad Alan likes to remind his daughter he was between the posts for Macclesfield once they misplaced 1-0 to Telford within the FA Trophy last – a milestone the 27-year-old hopes to overhaul with a win this weekend.
“He tells me this on a regular basis. That was my dad’s profession spotlight for positive,” stated Zelem. “In the event you ever get the possibility to satisfy him I’m positive he’ll inform you he performed at Wembley in a cup last and sadly they bought beat. So hopefully it will likely be a unique end result for us.
“However as quickly as we made it to Wembley he texts me saying, ‘you’re all the time copying me’. Hopefully I’ll be capable to dig out a photograph of him there and me there.”
(The FA through Getty Pictures)
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 12:11
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: Can Kerr ship on the massive stage once more?
League high goalscorer for the previous two seasons, Sam Kerr has scored in 5 consecutive cup finals for Chelsea: a hat-trick of their 2021 League Cup Last victory, a brace to assist win each the 2021 and 2022 Ladies’s FA Cup Finals and the one aim for Chelsea in successive League Cup Last defeats, to Manchester Metropolis in 2022 and Arsenal earlier this yr.
Forward of what’s the first girls’s FA Cup last to promote out Wembley, Kerr stated: “I play this recreation to attain targets and I really like the strain, I really like the massive video games, I really like with the ability to have a second within the palm of your arms and be capable to do one thing nice.
“So I get enthusiastic about these video games. Persons are nonetheless speaking about that Man United final recreation of the season, and for me that was so thrilling. I feel it’s thrilling when there’s one other second like that on the horizon.”
(The FA through Getty Pictures)
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 11:51
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: Chasing the double
Chelsea and Manchester United are vying with one another to win the league and FA Cup double, one thing Chelsea have carried out for the previous two seasons (together with as a part of a treble in 2020/21). Chelsea sealed the 2021/22 title with a dramatic comeback victory over Manchester United on the final day of the season to develop into the primary group to win the WSL thrice in a row.
The title is in Chelsea’s arms this season. They’re some extent behind Manchester United, however have a recreation in hand. If the Blues win their three remaining fixtures – West Ham, Arsenal and Studying on the ultimate day – they are going to be champions. The Arsenal recreation is the hardest, however Manchester United even have a tough take a look at towards Manchester Metropolis subsequent weekend.
(Getty Pictures)
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 11:31
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: Pre-match stats
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 11:17
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: United hope FA Cup last is first of many
Manchester United supervisor Marc Skinner seems to be forward to the membership’s debut within the girls’s FA Cup last, simply 5 years after resurrecting their girls’s programme:
“We’re possibly barely forward however nothing we’re not planning for. If it strikes forward then that’s good however I need it to be sustained.
“That’s my plan over the summer season with our recruitment and the way we go; it’s about making it sustainable so we’re not only a flash within the pan. That’s one thing I received’t settle for for us.
“I’m actually proud of our development as a result of you’ll be able to see it within the performances and the statistics. Being at Manchester United although, we wish to win.
“We’re placing within the foundations for that. That’s the place the pleasure comes from.”
Manchester United supervisor Marc Skinner believes his aspect are closing the hole on champions Chelsea (Bradley Collyer/PA)
(PA Archive)
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 11:02
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: Hayes on Chelsea group choice
Chelsea boss Emma Hayes on her group choice: “We’re in fine condition and we’re trying wholesome. Everybody who is aware of me is aware of that I don’t simply choose a group of 11 gamers, it’s a couple of squad and we like to combine issues up in coaching all through the week.
“We consider in creating gamers and creating these mixtures, and it’s truthful to say the complete squad is at their finest stage, they’re all ready, and, for that motive, it’s going to be tough to select a group.”
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 10:48
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: Document crowd at Wembley
Emma Hayes believes a Wembley sell-out for Sunday’s Ladies’s FA Cup last is “the brand new norm”.
Defending champions Chelsea will tackle Manchester United in entrance of an anticipated 90,000-strong crowd – a document for a girls’s home membership match.
This season has seen many milestones hit by way of attendances within the Ladies’s Tremendous League, with groups capitalising on the curiosity created by England’s European Championship victory.
Hayes is delighted to see her hopes coming to fruition, saying at a pre-match press convention: “Having a sold-out Wembley is simply implausible for the sport.
“As a girls’s soccer fan, it means every part to me. I’ve sat right here for over 10 years pushing, probing and championing for this as a result of I knew that today wasn’t too distant.
“With the success of the Lionesses, I knew that there can be no excuses now and I feel that is the brand new norm.”
(PA Wire)
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 10:38
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: Prediction and odds
Draw (after 90 minutes) 5/2
Manchester United win 23/10
Chelsea narrowly take victory. Chelsea 2-1 Manchester United
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 10:35
Ladies’s FA Cup last 2023: Predicted line-ups
Chelsea XI: Berger; Perisset, Carter, Eriksson; Charles, Cuthbert, Leupolz, Reiten; James, Kerr, More durable.
Manchester United XI: Earps; Batlle, Le Tissier, Turner, Blundell; Ladd, Zelem; Parris, Toone, Galton; Russo.
Jamie Braidwood14 Could 2023 10:33