Red Devils win Women’s FA Cup for first time

Manchester United won the Women’s FA Cup for the first time as Lucia Garcia scored twice in Sunday’s 4-0 final rout of Tottenham at Wembley Stadium, with Ella Toone also netting a stunning goal.

United bossed the game from the off and missed several good chances to take an early lead, but Toone handed them the advantage on the stroke of half-time by sending a 25-yard strike dipping into the top-right corner, giving Rebecca Spencer no chance.

Marc Skinner’s side doubled their lead when Rachel Williams rose to head Katie Zelem’s right-wing free-kick into the bottom-right corner after 54 minutes, and a glaring error from Spencer put the game beyond Spurs just three minutes later.

The Tottenham goalkeeper sent an awful pass directly to Garcia, who slotted her finish into an empty net to kill any doubts regarding the result.

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Spurs captain Beth England headed against the bar as Robert Vilahamn’s team were denied a consolation goal, and things got worse for them with 15 minutes to play, Garcia sidefooting into the roof of the net to make it a brace and cap a sparkling performance from the Red Devils, who lifted their first major trophy.

United co-owner Avram Glazer watched on as Skinner’s team atoned for last year’s final defeat to Chelsea, with new minority shareholder Jim Ratcliffe instead taking in the men’s team as they hosted Arsenal in the Premier League.

Your 2024 #WomensFACup WINNERS! 🔴🏆#MUWomen pic.twitter.com/Ff7WTfiKwa

— Manchester United Women (@ManUtdWomen) May 12, 2024

United are currently fifth in the Women’s Super League table with one game remaining and cannot finish higher than fourth, having been runners-up to Chelsea by just two points in 2022-23.

Goalscorer Williams says lifting the Cup puts a different perspective on their campaign but knows they need to make changes to reemerge as title contenders in 2024-25.

Asked by BBC Sport if the win changed how their season will be remembered, she said: “It does. We don’t like to admit it but it does mask the issues we’ve had.

“We have had some ups and downs this year. That’s for Marc and the backroom staff to be like, ‘right, this is what we have to do in the summer’. We are going to have change things next year.

“We have had some injuries, three or four ACLs at the start of the season. That’s football, teams go through transitions.

“You have a good year, then you have a dip. Next year we might just come back bigger, better and stronger and who knows, we might just be lifting the league.”

✍️ A new name on the trophy…

🏆 2024: MANCHESTER UNITED 🏆#MUWomen || #WomensFACup pic.twitter.com/sZ1hYiUuH8

— Manchester United Women (@ManUtdWomen) May 12, 2024