Chelsea 3 – 0 Manchester United
By Catherine MacKenzie (18/05/2025)
Above: Chelsea players celebrate. Photo: Mia Betts for Impetus.
It was yet another battle of Manchester v London on Sunday afternoon as Manchester United faced Chelsea in the final of the women’s FA Cup. The dominant blues came out 3-0 winners, allowing them to celebrate a domestic treble.
On Sunday afternoon, it was red against blue as Manchester United and Chelsea faced off in the final of the women’s FA Cup in London. Chelsea made the short trip off the back of a historic moment, being the first team to go undefeated in a 22-game WSL season. The only blemish for Chelsea this season is their campaign in the Champions League; beaten by European giants Barcelona 8-2 on aggregate, they exited in the semi-finals.
United had a much longer trip to the capital – leaving Manchester with a positive third-place league finish and a third consecutive FA Cup final in hand.
United were defeated by Arsenal last time out 4-3; an uncharacteristically sloppy defensive showing not helped by injury to Jade Rivere, who has been a revelation this season. The reds trialled a formation change of three-at-the-back, which left wide spaces open for Arsenal to exploit.
Chelsea ended the season with a narrow 1-0 win over Liverpool, getting the win via a last-minute goal from Aggie Beever-Jones. It was hardly a classic game but it saw them claim an unbeaten season ahead of Sunday’s final.
Team news
United fielded a similar team to the one that started against Arsenal – Gabby George came in for Anna Sandberg, and most controversially, electric midfielder Ella Toone was left on the bench. Toone is known as a ‘big game player’ – scoring first in last year’s FA Cup final, as well as in the final of England’s title-winning European Championship in 2022.
The Red Devils did not continue with the back three they had trialled against Arsenal; instead, Gabby George came into the back line, with Dominique Janssen moving into central midfield.
Following the match, United boss Marc Skinner was taken to task on his decision to leave Toone on the bench. He spoke of matching Chelsea’s physicality – especially in the early stages – suggesting that Toone would be used as a game-changer later. He explained:
“She’s a great player, but they try to physically dominate you and I felt that we wouldn’t have a foothold in the game without physically matching them.
“It was about the right opportunity to change the game.”
Chelsea made a couple of major changes to their midfield: German International Sjoke Nusken and Netherlands youngster Wieke Kaptein dropped to the bench in favour of more physicality. Beever-Jones moved back to the wing, as Mayra Ramirez was preferred up front.
The action – the importance of physicality and concentration
United had the better of Chelsea during the opening ten minutes, forcing them into a couple of early corners and successfully pinning them into their own half. From around the twentieth minute onwards, however, United struggled. Before the game, both head coaches had talked about the importance of physicality.
Recognising physicality as a strength of United’s, Chelsea exploited this by forcing the Manchester team into duels – effectively playing them at their own game. This paid off in the final minutes of the first half as Chelsea were awarded a penalty due to a high footed challenge from Bizet on Cuthbert, and Sandy Baltimore sent Phallon Tullis-Joyce the wrong way to get the opener.
This ability to adapt and neutralise an opponent’s strengths has been a key feature of the Bompastor era so far, adjusting to not only a different formation but also being forced to play in a way that the team have not always been comfortable with.
At the break, United boss Marc Skinner was forced into an early change by an injury to centre-back Millie Turner, who took a knock mid-way through the first half. Her replacement led to a change in shape for the reds; Janssen dropped back into defence, with Grace Clinton in the engine room and Ella Toone bolstering the attacking midfield.
Although the introduction of Toone did spark some more creativity for United going forward, Chelsea had the better chances. Tullis-Joyce was forced into a couple of saves, and for a long time, it looked like Chelsea would escape with yet another 1-0 win. However, late into the second half, the deadlock was broken as Sandy Baltimore superbly set up Catarina Macario for Chelsea’s second.
At this stage, United fell apart. They seemed to lose every challenge and made risky decisions – passing back to Tullis-Joyce under pressure, passing the ball straight to Chelsea. Following the loss against Arsenal, the discussion amongst fans was about mentality – and why the team seemed to fall apart momentarily after conceding.
If Chelsea’s second goal had come earlier in the second half, it might have been more positive for United – as they would have had longer to get this lapse of concentration out of their system and time to get back into the game.
As it happened, there were barely ten minutes left on the clock, and Chelsea did not ease their press. Baltimore got her second of the afternoon a minute into stoppage time, taking advantage of a United that were at sixes and sevens. The final whistle blew, and Chelsea took the stage as winners of this year’s FA Cup.
Player of the match – Sandy Baltimore
For Chelsea, choosing a player of the match is difficult because not one of the players on the pitch had a bad game. One could argue that Keira Walsh was quiet – under the watchful eye of England manager Sarina Wiegman, Walsh seemed to find herself in the right spaces but looked a bit lost on what to do next. But this would be ignoring her characteristic slinky passes; her connections with her teammates will likely improve with time.
The standout Chelsea player was Sandy Baltimore, who has arguably been one of Chelsea’s players of the season. Arriving last summer from PSG, the 25-year-old Frenchwoman has seven goal involvements in 15 WSL matches this season, alongside three goal involvements in eight Champions League matches.
She was an integral part of all three of Chelsea’s goals on the day, and caused United’s back line a struggle every time she was on the ball.
The bigger picture: contrasting ownerships
Chelsea’s new investor Alexis Ohanian was in the stands alongside wife Serena Williams, and ahead of the game the duo spoke to the BBC about their plans for the club:
“The sky is the limit. You heard our president say this club is unapologetically ambitious – I want to get that tattooed on me.“
“That is what we’re trying to build here – the best team in the world and at the forefront of women’s sport.“
“This will be a billion-dollar franchise one day. I hope my dollars, my pounds, can go towards that and especially back home in America. This is going to be America’s team.”
That Ohanian and Williams were in attendance at Wembley highlighted the contrast to United’s ownership – Sir Jim Ratcliffe made headlines in 2024 for choosing to attend a men’s premier league match in Manchester over the women’s FA Cup final – and failed to make an appearance for the second year in a row.
United’s hierarchy were instead represented by Chief Executive Omar Berrada among others, but the absence of the majority shareholder was striking, particularly since he was in London for United men’s game against Chelsea the previous day.
Post-match, United boss Skinner was asked extensively about this – and what it means for both him and his players:
“I don’t know why Jim wasn’t here so I can’t give you that answer. We were really well represented. Omar [Berrada] was there, then Glazer family and Jason [Wilcox] was as well. Those are the people that I deal with every day.”
Continuing, Skinner used the opportunity to argue that investment in the women’s team would speak louder than visibility at games:
“I’ve just lost a final but our club were well represented and I deal with them every day. They need to see that to look at what we need to do bridge that growing gap in finance.”
Sonia Bompastor was conversely asked about the impact that having Chelsea’s new investor in attendance had on her team:
“For sure it’s a big lift. I think that’s the most important – for people to show that support coming into games. It’s really enjoyable for us to see like all the people coming from the ownership here today. But even more important to feel they were behind the team supporting the team. We had a lot of support coming from them before the game during the week and also on game day.”
“This is my cape of secrets”: Post-match quotes
It can never be easy for a manager to face questions from the media after such a loss. Skinner was asked extensively about team selection, tactics, and the absence of majority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
On the game, Skinner said: “I thought we started well. I felt we matched them physically. We just needed to be a little bit braver and jump.”
He added that it was a “big game, won on set pieces…it was concentration and individual errors – we’ve got work to do. We’ve just got to in the moment, take responsibility. In big moments, we need to make better decisions.”
He was also asked about plans for the summer transfer window. Although typically coy, Skinner did admit that although he “loves my team”, he feels United need more “variance in the forward line.”
A slightly more jubilant Sonia Bompastor entered her post-match press conference wearing a Chelsea flag as a cape. The Chelsea boss joked with the press – “this is my cape of secrets” – as she faced questions about Chelsea’s season.
Suggesting she was not fully satisfied, the Chelsea boss commented: “Some of the people there on the pitch were already mentioning ‘we are missing the Champions League’, so that’s who we are, that’s our goal.”
Chelsea forward and scorer of the Blues’ second goal Catarina Macario spoke to BBC Sport: “It’s a very emotional day. It’s a trophy we always wanted to win. We wanted to win a treble. It’s been a hard season for me personally, so it’s a special day to be at Wembley and to win means a lot.”
Speaking about her goal, she said: “I think it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to play at Wembley and to score in a final, in such an important game, it brings a lot of emotion. It was the cherry on the cake for the end of the season.”
Finally, she was asked about winning the treble: “Playing for Chelsea, we want to win everything, every title. It is a lot of pressure any time that you play in a massive game like this but we have this winning mentality. We’ve been here before and we know what we have to do to win and that’s what we did today.”
For Chelsea, it is the end of the season; however United will be whisked off to Portugal in a few days, taking part in the inaugural World 7s competition.
TEAMS: CHELSEA (4-2-3-1): Hampton, Bright, Ramirez, Cuthbert, Bjorn, Girma, Baltimore, Charles, Bronze, Walsh, Beever-Jones. Substitutes: Spencer, Nusken (for Cuthbert 90+4′), Macario (for Ramirez 62′), Reiten (for Baltimore 90+4′), Lawrence, Kaptein (for Beever-Jones 75′), Kaneryd (for Bronze 90+4′), Hamano, Jean-Francois.
Scorers: Baltimore 45’, Macario 85’, Baltimore 90+1’
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1): Tullis-Joyce, George, Le Tissier, Mannion, Clinton, Galton, Bizet, Janssen, Terland, Miyazawa, Turner. Substitutes: Rendell, Middleton-Patel, Sandberg (for George 76′), Toone (for Turner 46′), Malard (for Mannion 70′), Awujo, Naalsund (for Miyazawa 81′), Williams (for Bizet 81′), Griffiths.
Referee: Stacey Fullicks
Attendance: 74,412
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