Manchester City thrash Brighton to seal Women’s FA Cup and historic Double

A ruthless Manchester City won the Women’s FA Cup for a fourth time and completed the Double as they eventually coasted to a 4-0 win over Brighton, as Khadija Shaw celebrated signing her new contract with a Wembley goal. Shaw and her City teammates provided Brighton with a harsh lesson on the importance of taking your chances in a final, with Albion having looked the stronger side for large parts of the game but having lacked the clinical edge in the final third that the league champions demonstrated after riding out some pressure. Shaw, who had been expected to leave the club this summer on a free transfer before performing a dramatic U-turn to sign a lucrative new contract on Monday, nodded her team in front at Wembley, before Alex Greenwood’s fine free-kick, Aoba Fujino’s deflected effort and Vivianne Miedema’s angled header enabled City to lift the cup for the first time since 2020, and for the first time with spectators permitted inside the stadium for seven years, as their most recent FA Cup triumph had been staged behind closed doors. Manchester City players celebrate after the FA Cup final. Photograph: John Walton/PA Added to their first Women’s Super League title in a decade, the victory completed a memorable season for Andrée Jeglertz and his confident team, albeit the scoreline will have confused anybody who only watched the opening half an hour. …