Arsenal made a surprise exit at the quarter-final stage of the Women’s FA Cup for the second successive season as Brighton stunned the record 14-time cup winners at Borehamwood.
Liverpool managed to avoid it becoming a day of shocks as they struck late in extra time to eventually find a way past a stubborn Charlton Athletic side, but they was no such joy for Arsenal, who paid the price for a performance that was well below their best.
The shock result in the lunchtime kick-off extended Arsenal’s decade-long wait to lift the Women’s FA Cup, just four days after they knocked Chelsea out of the Champions League to reach a European semi-final. Dario Vidosic’s side stepped up and their former Chelsea forward Fran Kirby provided two assists to help Brighton secure a memorable 2-0 victory.
First Kirby slipped the ball through to Madison Haley, who swept a superb finish into the top corner from the right hand side of the penalty area in lethal style, making it 1-0 shortly after half-time.
Just over 15 minutes later, a deep Kirby corner was headed in at the far post by Caitlin Hayes to boost Brighton’s hopes of winning a first major piece of women’s football silverware. Kirby, a five-time winner of the cup with Chelsea, was in fine form against her former rivals.
The victory was no less than Brighton deserved on a day when Arsenal looked disjointed and perhaps a little fatigued after their midweek efforts. The north London side, who have not reached the FA Cup semi-finals since 2022 despite dominating this competition historically, opted to start with the England striker Alessia Russo on the bench alongside other stars such as Katie McCabe and Olivia Smith. They made six changes in all, from the side that faced Chelsea.
Arsenal were also knocked out in the quarter-finals on home turf last season against Liverpool. This season Liverpool were away from home in the last eight again, taking on the Women’s Super League 2 side Charlton, and they were made to work very hard to progress.
Charlton were well organised and their back five proved tricky for the top-flight side to break down, and even when Beata Olsson flicked the ball into the net in normal time for Liverpool, the offside flag was correctly raised. Martha Thomas spurned two decent changes for Gareth Taylor’s team, who were dominated the ball but only forced the Charlton keeper Sophie Whitehouse to make two saves.
They eventually found a way through with the scrappiest of goals, as Jenna Clark headed against the woodwork twice during a scramble after a corner and the ball eventually fell in to the box to Zara Shaw, on as a substitute, to force the ball home. It was a special moment for Shaw, marking her return to competitive action for the first time in 12 months after a knee injury, and her teammates were clearly overjoyed for her.
Shaw’s 115th-minute winner came 12 minutes after she was brought on off the bench, and Taylor said: “What a story, Zara Shaw, eh? The way people speak about her at the club, it couldn’t have happened to a better person.
“It was scrappy, it was kind of [like] trying to suck the ball over the line. What it does highlight is it’s really difficult to play against a team like Charlton, who are really good defensively. I know they’ve conceded five in their last two games but they’ve got the best defensive record in [WSL2]. They’re going to go up, you can see that, and it just makes it really tough to play against. It’s just sometimes really difficult to break teams down.”
The Charlton head coach, Karen Hills, a cup winner with Charlton as a player in 2005, was proud of her side’s display, which came in front of a crowd of 2,164, their largest for a women’s fixture at the Valley for more than 20 years. Hills said: “It’s mixed emotions. Firstly, you don’t want to lose a quarter-final, but I’m so proud of the group. The way they performed today, they were outstanding.
“What a performance from my team. We dug in. We showed a lot of character. We nullified a lot of their threats. They didn’t really have many clear cut chances to score and it took a bit of a messy goal to win the game.
“We wanted to show what our identity was today and, for a lot of new fans, coming in, it’s probably the first time they’d seen us. I hope they’re proud of that performance because I know my players are proud of it and I’m proud of it.”
