For most of the afternoon at Stamford Bridge, it looked like it would be Chelsea that Brighton would face in the final, not Man City.
It was the hosts who took the lead when Erin Cuthbert’s shot deflected in after just eight minutes, giving them a valuable early advantage in what was always going to be a close encounter, and Sam Kerr extended that cushion just before the hour when she pounced on Khiara Keating’s error to nod in with ease.
However, City somehow staged the most dramatic of comebacks in a match that somehow topped the earlier kick-off for twists and turns. With four minutes remaining, Mary Fowler pulled one back for the English champions, driving a lovely effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. It looked, surely, to only be a consolation.
And yet, as the clock ticked into stoppage time, an equaliser would follow. All the talk in the build-up to this fixture had been centred around Shaw, the WSL’s top-scorer who appears set to leave City and potentially join Chelsea this summer. On the day, she struggled for service, getting plenty of shots off but never troubling Hannah Hampton. Then, in the 91st minute, she brilliantly turned and fired the ball beyond the England No.1 to force extra time.
There, she would be the hero once more. Hampton tried to play out quickly and instead delivered the ball right to City midfielder Yui Hasegawa, whose great cross picked out Shaw. Of course, she would head City in front, producing the sort of script more suited to Hollywood than Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea tried to respond but couldn’t find another. Sandy Baltimore came close to an unlikely leveller direct from a corner which hit the woodwork, Cuthbert fired a great chance over the bar from just inside the box and Sjoeke Nusken forced Keating into a wonderful save in the dying minutes. The Blues will be left to rue their incredible late collapse instead, with two goals from the 86th minute onwards allowing City back into a game they seemed out of.