City beat Brighton to seal fourth FA Cup triumph | OneFootball

Women's Team

City crowned FA Cup winners after Brighton victory

Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and Alex Greenwood fired home towards the end of an otherwise evenly matched first half to hand City a two-goal advantage at the break.

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Aoba Fujino came off the bench to make it three with 25 to play, with Vivianne Miedema heading home late on to seal a memorable victory.

With City already crowned Champions of England earlier in May, the Blues have now created further history with our first-ever league and FA Cup double to end a special 2025/26 campaign in style.

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What happened

Clashes between City and Brighton this season have been hard-fought and evenly contested affairs, and the early exchanges in front of 43,917 supporters at Wembley were no different.

Brighton perhaps edged the early exchanges with Alex Greenwood clearing off the line with Ayaka Yamashita stricken after a heavy collision with Madison Haley, before her Japan team-mate Kiko Seike fired over on the half-volley from a promising angle.

City recovered after the half-hour mark with Chiamaka Nnadozie saving from Grace Clinton and Shaw, but the Jamaican broke the deadlock as half-time approached.

Alex Greenwood hung a teasing cross up to the far post with Shaw too strong for Nnadozie, beating the goalkeeper to the ball and heading home her 27th of the season.

And our captain turned from provider to scorer deep into stoppage time at the end of the half, sending an exquisite free-kick into the bottom right corner to double our advantage at the break.

The Blues were in control, with Rebecca Knaak glancing a header wide from a Greenwood corner after the hour mark, but a third would follow soon after through substitute Fujino.

Cutting back across goal onto her left foot, the Japan international’s powerful effort took a touch off Maisie Symonds en route to the back of the net and put the game out of sight.

Shaw could’ve made it four late on when she sent a vicious effort towards the top corner, but Nnazodie made a fine save to deny the Jamaican a second, before the Brighton stopper spectacularly thwarted Fujino from the resultant corner.

A fourth came just before the final whistle though, with Miedema capping her return to action with a typically clinical header from Kerstin Casparij’s cross.

Lionesses do us proud

It was rather fitting that perhaps two of the finest individual performances came from Hemp and Greenwood – a duo with over 350 appearances for the Club between them.

City’s left flank caused Brighton problems all afternoon, with Shaw’s opening goal coming from a Greenwood cross, before our captain fired home number two.

Our third also had Hemp and Greenwood’s fingerprints all over it, with the duo combining to release Shaw, who eventually cut it back for Fujino.

Two of City’s finest servants stepped up to the plate when it mattered.

Fantastic Four

A fourth FA Cup triumph, and first since November 2020, this will rightly go down as one of the most memorable afternoons in City’s history.

The Blues were playing at Wembley for the first time since 2022, when we lost the final to Chelsea in extra time, but after our quickfire double before the break it looked like there’d only be one winner.

We have now won the famous competition in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2026.

Player of the Match: Alex Greenwood

The captain led by example, having a huge hand in all three goals while also marshalling the City defence expertly.

Greenwood perhaps doesn’t grab the headlines as regularly as she should but, after grabbing one goal and one assist at Wembley before lifting the FA Cup, she’ll deservedly get the plaudits today.

How we lined up

Brighton XI: Nnadozie, Catano, Minami, Symonds (C) (Rayner 88’), Cankovic, Seike (Kafaji 71’), Kirby (Noordam 79’), Hayes, Olislagers (McLauchlan 80’), Haley, Rule (Mpome 71’)

Brighton Subs: Baggaley, Tvedten, Carrillo, Tsunoda

City XI: Yamashita, Rose, Knaak, Greenwood (C), Casparij, Blindkilde Brown (Lohmann 76’), Hasegawa, Hemp (Fowler 77’), Kerolin (Fujino 61’), Clinton (Miedema 61’), Shaw (Coombs 85’)

City Subs: Cumings, Ouahabi, Prior, Murphy

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