What Happened: Baltimore's brilliance in the FA Cup final
Flo Lloyd-Hughes takes a look at some of the big stories in women's football and highlights the latest pieces to read on The Cutback
Welcome to the latest edition of What Happened, The Cutback’s weekly newsletter that sums up some of the big stories from the weekend of women’s football.
This week’s edition is being drafted from Barcelona as I fly back from a last-minute work trip.
I missed Olly Murs’ Wembley medley as I was watching Barcelona lift the Liga F trophy at the Johan Cruyff stadium on Sunday.
It was Barca’s last game before this Saturday’s Champions League final and they absolutely blew away Athletic Bilbao, winning 6-0. It felt like a training game, such was the ease with which Barcelona moved the ball and created chances. It easily could have been double figures.
All eyes are on the Champions League this week as we begin to count down the days until the most anticipated game of the season.
I’ll be in Lisbon and I’m also heading to Estoril to check out the new World Sevens tournament. See some of you there!
In today’s issue: Chelsea’s emphatic season sign-off, disappointment for United.
Chelsea’s treble
The tight and tense FA Cup final that many of us wanted didn’t quite materialise as Chelsea ended up dismantling Manchester United 3-0 at Wembley on Sunday.
Chelsea had the better opportunities right up until Celin Bizet gave away a silly penalty at the end of the first half. Sandy Baltimore stuck it away and United didn’t really have anything to offer after that moment.
Catarina Macario’s 84th-minute header gave Chelsea more celebrations and Baltimore’s second of the afternoon made it a comprehensive beating.
The victory means Chelsea claim an invincible domestic treble, winning the WSL title, League and FA Cups without losing a game.
It has well and truly been Chelsea’s year. Comprehensively beating out all the competition. Will we see the same next year?....
Brilliant Baltimore
I praised Baltimore in my Team of the Season selections last week, but I need to dedicate another paragraph to her this week.
Amid all the talk of big-spending Chelsea, it’s a player who arrived on a free from PSG that has been instrumental in this unbeaten campaign.
At the start of the season, it was all about Baltimore at left-back or left wing-back, pushing high but also showing a lesser-seen defensive side to her game. Over the last couple of weeks, she’s been deployed in her more familiar forward left-wing role and she’s once again impressed with her ability to create and finish (stats).
In Chelsea’s fateful 8-2 aggregate defeat to Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Champions League, Baltimore was one of Chelsea’s only bright sparks, scoring an incredible goal in the first leg that briefly brought her team back into the tie.
Coming under the wing of Sonia Bompastor has clearly given the 25-year-old confidence, belief and guidance. Bompastor made a point of recruiting young French players into this Chelsea with 22-year-old Maelys Mpome and Oriane Jean-Francois, 23, also arriving last summer. Baltimore was already an experienced international with Champions League pedigree when she arrived, but Bompastor has moulded her into a versatile and even more dangerous left-sided killer.
In Sunday’s FA Cup final, her cool and calm penalty at the end of the first half set the tone for the rest of Chelsea’s afternoon. Chelsea had dominated right up until that moment but had struggled to take any of their chances. Baltimore stepped up, taking her penalty towards a sea of Manchester United fans and unfazed by the towering presence of Phallon Tullis-Joyce ahead of her.
Ishan Shah has his full breakdown of Chelsea’s victory on the site today.
What next for Manchester United?
There was so much hope and expectation for Manchester United fans on Sunday. After two narrow defeats to Chelsea in the WSL, suffering such a one-sided result in a cup final will sting. Being the holders makes it even worse.
In the most recent match-up between these sides, United created plenty of chances, but it was a late Lucy Bronze header that ended up being the only goal that could separate them.
With no Jayde Riviere at right-back, Chelsea knew they could use their left side to put pressure on the United back line.
Marc Skinner’s biggest roll of the dice was the decision not to start Ella Toone, a familiar match winner at Wembley.
I understand the logic behind this. The midfield duo of Grace Clinton and Hinata Miyazawa has made United more balanced when deployed this season. Clinton and Toone as a midfield combination is yet to really look its best, with both players wanting to play in the more advanced role and United often looking cluttered and ineffective as a result.
Unfortunately for United, the starting midfield failed to create and Toone was unable to impact the game when she came on at half-time, replacing Millie Turner, who made an early exit through injury.
Our regular United writer, Conner Roberts, will have his say on what went wrong for United in a piece on the site, so keep an eye out for that.
This week we’ll have a Champions League final preview focused on Arsenal from Max Radwan and we’ll be delivering some end-of-season round-ups from the rest of the team.
See you same time next week.