Jeglertz lauds City duo after Women’s FA Cup triumph seals double | OneFootball

Sam Bunce, Football reporter

Manchester City head coach Andree Jeglertz heaped praise on captain Alex Greenwood and Bunny Shaw after proving instrumental to their Women’s FA Cup triumph over Brighton at Wembley.

In his first season in charge, the former Denmark boss led City to the WSL title for the first time in 10 years and added the FA Cup to complete a historic domestic double, after their 4-0 victory over Brighton.

Greenwood doubled the advantage on the stroke of half-time with her first goal of the season after assisting Shaw’s headed header to put their side in front, stepping up to curl home a trademark free-kick won from the edge of the penalty area.

Jeglertz shared his delight at Greenwood’s leadership qualities and drive to learn a new position within the WSL champions’ system.

“She is a great person, she’s a great football player, and she’s a great leader,” he said. “She’s meant a lot to me during this year because she is taking care of the locker room all the time.”

“She’s played centre-back for many years for this club and the national team, but she’s also shown that she’s curious of becoming a better player in another position. Now she’s playing left-back, which she did in a fantastic way today – she’s done that the whole spring.”

The score line suggests City’s drubbing of the Seagulls was rather straightforward, but Jeglertz admitted they were unable to gain a foothold in the opening 30 minutes when Dario Vidosic’s Brighton side were disruptive and persistent.

“The first 30 minutes we struggled,” he said. “I think we struggled especially when we lost the ball too easily in our own build-up.

“We had some challenges with their rotations. They switched positions. The key thing in that at the same time was that they didn’t create any scoring chances.”

City still emerged unscathed, and they were the ones to break the deadlock courtesy of Khadija Shaw’s header, leaping above opposition goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie in the 38th minute.

The 29-year-old scored had scored a crucial header in the semi-final comeback against Chelsea in extra-time, and was the bright spark during City’s laboured start at Wembley.

It comes not long after the WSL Player of the Season signed a new four-year contract to remain at the club until 2030, having been earmarked by Chelsea as a potential replacement for Blues legend Sam Kerr.

Jeglertz said: “We have Bunny Shaw in our team and we play a certain way to get the best out of her. If you have another kind of striker, you’d need to do it differently.”

“I’m very impressed how she’s handled that. She’s never shown any kind of mood that has affected her performance.

“She has been so professional all the time, always performs, always being a positive person no matter what. I haven’t noticed any kind of challenges for her.

“It’s amazing that she thinks our program is the best way to become a better football player and also that this is the right place she wants to be to win titles.”

Substitutes Aoba Fujino and Vivianne Miedema each netted goals to make City’s lead unassailable, securing the club’s fourth FA Cup title, and retaining the services of Shaw and Greenwood will give Jeglertz the best shot at building on his success.