Home » Preview of Manchester United women’s FA Cup semi-final

Preview of Manchester United women’s FA Cup semi-final

by Zoe Hodges

Manchester United women are preparing for their first FA Cup semi-final since they reformed in 2018.

Tomorrow they will take on Brighton at Leigh Sports Village and will be hoping to progress through to their first final at Wembley, where they would face either Chelsea or Aston Villa.

Previously, their best cup run came in their inaugural season where they reached the quarter-final stage of the competition. This was followed by a fourth round exit the next season and consecutive fifth round exits since.

This season, they beat Sunderland in the fourth round 2-1, before thrashing Durham 5-0 and Lewes 3-1 to make it to the semis.

Nikita Parris is United’s top goal scorer in the FA Cup this season, having scored four of those ten goals. Russo and Boe Risa have scored two each whilst Galton and Blundell have each scored one.

Brighton will be their toughest test so far in this cup run but the fellow WSL side were defeated by the Reds two weeks ago by four goals to nil in the league.

As The Athletic points out, United are probably favourites to progress to the final due to the fact Brighton are engaged in a relegation battle in the league and that United have beat them 4-0 twice already this season.

Brighton have had three managers so far this season. Hope Powell departed in October 2022 after an 8-0 defeat to Tottenham.

Her successor, former Bayern Munich coach Jens Scheuer, left in March this year after taking charge of just six games.

Now they are under the guidance of Melissa Phillips, whose main focus is to keep them in the WSL.

If United reach the final it would show just how far they have come since 2018. This is what they have been building for and working towards.

Meanwhile, in the other semi-final, Chelsea are favourites to beat Aston Villa, but Carla Ward’s side have had a good season so far and could cause an upset.

Chelsea have won four of the last eight FA Cups. If one of the other three teams were to win the trophy though it would be the first time since 2012 that one of ‘the big three’ (Arsenal, Chelsea or City) hadn’t claimed the cup.

United fans should feel quietly confident tonight but no doubt at kick off tomorrow those on the terraces will be feeling the nerves!

Latest Top Stories...