Arsenal Academy Graduate

Arsenal vs Man City Cup Final

It's finally the the final day. My first FA Cup final with my forever team. We're currently doing really well in the Champions League, 1st in the WSL and we are now on our way to the FA Cup final. What a time to be an Arsenal player. Although we know we have the quality to win the trophy, we've got to remember that we are playing against Manchester City. The final is being played at Wembley and it's been sold out for the first time in Women's Fa Cup history which is pretty big for us and I'm honoured to be a part of it.

We finally arrive at the stadium and there was just a big wave of red shirts waiting for us by the players entrance. We step off the bus and make our way to sign a few jersey's before heading inside to get ready to warm up. After our warm up we head inside to get ready for kick off.

commentary

Welcome to Wembley Stadium this afternoon for the Fa Cup Final between Arsenal and Manchester City. Today's line ups are the following;

Manchester City: Roebuck, Bronze, Dahlkemper, Houghton, Greenwood, Walsh, Weir, Stanway, Hemp, Kelly and White
And for The Arsenal
Arsenal: Williams, Sonnett, Williamson, Wubben-Moy, Patten, Nobbs, Walti, Horan, Mead, Miedema and Foord.

Game

Man City started very well and took an early lead through Ellen White, this was the worst start possible for us. 30 minutes after the goal, Foord scored a worldie from 30 yards and it was all even at half time. Although we weren't playing the best, we were still in it and we can now move on to win it. The half time whistle blew and everyone including the subs made their way to the changing rooms.

Leah: Girls we need to wake up, although the game is level they look like their going to score the next goal. We need to change that. We're better than this and deep down you all know that.
Jonas: She's right guys, we've not yet proved we're worthy winners. I'm going to make a few tactical changes and then I'll bring on some subs on if needed.
Sophie: Girls i don't want to go all soft and tell you how much you guys mean to me but right now we need to all have eachothers backs and be prepared to die for eachother. We need to go and show everyone out there that we're more than just a football team, that we're willing to put anything on the line to win this trophy. By being a childhood fan of this club, winning a trophy with you guys would mean the world.
Jordan: I agree with Soph. Let's go and show them what we're made of. Team on 3. 1,2,3
Everyone: TEAM!!!!

Like Man City in the first half, we started as the better team. It was around the 75th minute and Jonas decided to bring me on because Man City were becoming tired so I could exploit that. I replaced Lindsey and we shared a little hug before I stepped foot on the pitch. The crowd started chanting my new and cheering really loud and i felt more motivated to win it for them. It was the 89th minute and I passed the ball out wide to Anna and i just screamed "Run Anna" and she started gliding past the City players like they weren't there. She came and stopped by the edge of the area and she crossed the ball and i sprinted to go and meet the ball with a perfect header.

The header shoots past Ellie Roebuck's hands and went into the top corner and i just ran into the corner flag and did a heart towards them. My emotions were through the roof. There was only 1 person I wanted to thank and that was Anna and I couldn't see her amongst the girls around me. I turned around to see her screaming in pain on the opposite side of the pitch and she was receiving treatment. I ran towards her even though the girls said I shouldn't.

I helped the medics carry her off to the sidelines and things didn't look so good with her. The ref indicated that there was a minimum of 2 minutes added on and the score was currently 2-1 to us. Jonas advised us to go all out defensive mode so we did. We had the trophy in sight. Stanway received the ball and started sprinting down the line, luckily for us Leah was there to produce one of her slide tackles. It was at that moment where the referee blew the final whistle. Man City players dropped to the floor, while we all ran to eachother and celebrated. But all I could think about was Anna, so I ran off into the changing rooms to see how she's doing.