Man City Women v West Ham United Women FA Cup Final match preview

Man City Women head to Wembley on Saturday to take on West Ham United Women in the SSE Women’s FA Cup Final and this will be the third meeting between the two teams this season, having already played each other twice in the FA WSL; Man City coming out top on both occasions with 7-1 and 3-1 wins over the Hammers.

West Ham’s route to the final has been relatively straight forward with the team easily winning all four of their matches since entering the competition in the fourth round, clocking wins against Blackburn Rovers, Huddersfield Town and Aston Villa in normal time. Their semi-final against Reading FC Women went to extra time and penalties, the side winning 4-3 with former Blue Jane Ross, Adriana Leon and captain Gilly Flaherty netting successfully; South Korean captain Cho So-Hyun scoring the winning spot kick.

The team has scored a total of 14 goals in the competition and the top scorer is Republic of Ireland forward Leanne Kiernan, who has netted three goals by recording a hat-trick in the 8-1 win over Huddersfield, while teammates Brianna Visalli, Leon, Ross and Alisha Lehmann have scored twice; Kate Longhurst and Rosie Kmita once.

Photo by Alex Burstow/Getty Images

Anna Moorhouse has been the only goalkeeper out of the club’s two to feature, the other being former Chelsea keeper Rebecca Spencer, and has played all of the previous games, keeping one clean sheet.

City have made it to the final thanks to a trio of 3-0 wins over Watford FC Ladies, Tottenham Hotspur Ladies and Liverpool FC Women, with an unfortunate own goal from Magdalena Eriksson in their semi against Chelsea sealing their second visit to Wembley.

Nikita Parris and Georgia Stanway stand at the top of the list for City’s own top scorers with the two forwards’ having scored twice with Pauline Bremer, captain Steph Houghton, Lauren Hemp, Gemma Bonner and Janine Beckie also on the scoresheet throughout the four previous matches; all netting a goal. Goalkeepers Karen Bardsley and Ellie Roebuck have made three and one appearances respectively, with both keeping clean sheets.

Kick off for the SSE Women’s FA Cup Final is 17:30pm on Saturday 4^th May with tickets still available, but if you can’t make it BBC One will be showing the game live.