Manchester City Women want to continue their brilliant form by lifting the FA Cup at Wembley on Sunday in front of a record crowd — and they are calling upon fans to get their tickets this week.
Some 40,000 tickets have already been sold for the season's showpiece event, where an in-form City side will face newly-crowned Women's Super League champions, Chelsea. City were as low as ninth in the WSL this season, but have put together a run of just one defeat in their past 23 games: reaching the FA Cup final, winning the Continental Cup, and securing Champions League football for next season.
It's set up to be an epic final between the two most in-form sides in the country — who already produced a classic in that Continental Cup final — and City goalkeeper Karen Bardsley says the Blues are keen to finish their resurgent season in style, hopefully with a record crowd at Wembley.
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The previous record for a Women's FA Cup final was 45,423, set in 2018, and the FA's most recent update last week confirmed that sales had surpassed the 40,000 mark. This final also marks the first time that the Men's and Women's finals have been held on the same weekend.
On Monday, Bardsley toured Manchester with the prestigious Women's FA Cup trophy, conducting football sessions with youngsters and handing out free tickets for the final for those taking part.
City are offering subsidised coach travel from the Etihad on Sunday, in order to get as many Blues at Wembley as possible, and helping to 'smash' the attendance record, as goalkeeper Bardsley told MEN Sport.
"Sunday's gonna be epic. It's going to be a really good event, a good send off," she said, referencing her recent announcement that she will retire from football at the end of the season.
"Tickets are still available, we want to smash this record, as much as possible. So it's really cool actually, the FA are putting on tickets for a lot of the schools that I’ve come to visit and like City are putting on buses to leave from the idea to go down to Wembley and make it really as accessible as possible for people. So I'm just hoping we have like a really good backing down there. City fans are always noisy, especially at Wembley.
"Obviously, we want to just keep breaking records where we can and another great opportunity to do that. I've got some really fond memories being at Wembley, but one of the weirdest ones was the Community Shield and it was empty during COVID. It was the eeriest feeling.
"Going back there, winning the trophy the following season and hopefully winning it again will be a nice way to end my chapter at Man City and hopefully get another trophy in the trophy cabinet at Man City as well. The whole retirement thing has not really sunk in but I have a feeling when we lift that trophy, it's certainly going to hit me like a tonne of bricks."
Bardsley got the chance to speak to schoolchildren at Oasis Academy in Oldham, East Manchester Academy, and at Denton Community College, before the children were put through their paces with some football drills, and then got chance to have pictures with Bardsley and the trophy itself.
"I have been all over Manchester but it's been really, really fun. I got to meet all sorts of, you know, boys and girls from all over the community and got to hear about some of their stories and got to see what you know their days are like from their perspective," she said.
"I never really get to go into schools or be a part of these types of initiatives or projects so it's kind of cool to see it on the side. We've had a great reception everywhere we've been. I feel really honoured that people are so engaged at the minute with women's football and it falls quite nicely with my retirement announcement and everything and everyone had lots of questions, and it's been really timely. It's kind of been like a nice bit of an icing on the cake that, you know, they've seen the releases, they've seen the stuff on TV and radio and it was kind of relevant to what's going on and just the fact that they're willing to engage and ask questions.
"I've been in situations before where you show up and there's just no interest whatsoever. No one's told them anything. No one knows anything about women's football and it's just dead awkward because you're like, ‘This is why you should listen to me’ and they're like, ‘yeah, no, go away’. So it's been really a good learning opportunity for me, but also we've got, we've got some boys and girls to come up and show us some of their skills and it's just been like a really good atmosphere and a good day, like lots of good vibes all around.
"You see the direct impact that you're having, and over the course of my career, you didn't always see that or maybe you weren't even aware of it. So it's like, 'this is what I do every day', but you don't really know if anyone's taking notice. Now you're seeing all these girls that are playing football. They're asking questions that are relevant to what's going on in the game, the future of it, and to see such a variety of faces as well is really, really cool. Because it seems like all these initiatives seems to be working and that's just the nicest thing is that you want that inclusivity because that's what's so special about football."
Don't miss out! Watch Chelsea vs Manchester City in the Vitality Women's FA Cup final this Sunday. Visit thefa.com/ticketing, tickets available now.
