Women's FA Cup final preview: Can Seagulls stun City? | OneFootball

The women's football season in England comes to an end on Sunday with an FA Cup final that sees one side chasing a domestic double and another hoping to lift the trophy for the first time.

The 2025/26 Women's Super League champions Manchester City will of course be the favourites coming into this game against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Indeed, the Citizens have been imperious all season long and will be buoyed by the recent decision of star striker Khadija Shaw to turn down a move to Chelsea to stick with City – a huge boost to their domestic and European prospects next season.

It's also the opportunity for City to get their hands back on a trophy that they won three out of four seasons between the 2016/17 and 2019/20 seasons. The Manchester side did reach the FA Cup final as recently as the 2021/22 season but fell to a 3-2 extra-time defeat to the Blues.

Coincidentally, it was a 3-2 extra-time win over Chelsea that got City to the final with Bunny Shaw, of course, winning the tie in the 103rd minute. Before that, City's road to Wembley was a fairly breezy one, defeating second-tier sides Birmingham City and Sheffield United as well as third-tier Bournemouth.

Their opponents this weekend meanwhile had a tougher path to get to their first ever FA Cup final. After defeating second-tier Nottingham Forest, Brighton had to knock out three WSL teams: West Ham, Arsenal, and finally Liverpool.

Indeed, both semi-finals were probably some of the best the competition has ever seen. Both City and Brighton were trailing 2-0 before going on to seal 3-2 victories.

A similar scenario is likely in the final if the last two league meetings between the two are anything to go by.

In the first meeting in Manchester back in September, Fran Kirby had given the Seagulls an early lead before Shaw and Yui Hasegawa completed a second-half comeback.

Then on the south coast, Kerolin gave City the lead inside five minutes before Brighton came roaring back with Madison Haley bagging a brace and Kiko Seike on the scoresheet in a 3-2 win. No prizes for guessing who scored the other City goal that day.

So while the WSL winners will be favourites in the final, ambitious Brighton are more than capable of pulling off a shock and at the very least another epic, goal-filled encounter.