Tottenham Eveliina Summanen and Olga Ahtinen are about to make history on Sunday in the final of the women’s FA Cup, or FA Cup. The London club is in the final match of the Women’s FA Cup for the first time, and they will face Manchester United.
The final is the tenth to be played at the legendary Wembley Stadium. Last year, the world record attendance for a women’s match was 77,390. Today, that record is predicted to be broken. In ten years, the number of spectators at the cup climax has grown from more than 30,000 to almost 80,000 pairs of eyes.
The cup finals of top European countries have been a rare treat for Finns. ‘s expert Essi Sainio glows with achievement, because reaching the final is a big deal, especially in football’s big countries.
– The significance is really great for Finnish women’s futsal, and we certainly don’t fully understand it in Finland or give it enough value, Sainio emphasizes.
The Women’s FA Cup has been played since 1970. The London club Arsenal is the most successful cup team in history with 14 championships.
Currently the goalkeeper representing AS Roma Tinja-Riikka Korpela was with Everton in the FA Cup final in the corona year 2020. There was no audience at the time, but 90,000 spectators. The attractive Wembley made an impression on the substitute Finnish goalkeeper.
The final was a huge thing for Everton. For example, the club’s former players, who played in the final, came to talk to the team about what the match meant. The team also traveled from Liverpool to London days before the final.
– In England, some value the FA Cup even more than success in the series, Korpela sums up.
The Superliga matches will not be played this weekend, but the eyes of football fans are on the Wembley final. Korpela believes that the clubs left behind in the league have been focused on the cup competition for a longer time.
– The final has certainly been hyped for a long time within the clubs and prepared really well, says Korpela, who played in Tottenham.
Tottenham beat Leicester 2–1 in the semi-final.
The Finns played a big role, because Jutta Rantala gave Leicester the lead in the opening half. Summanen twisted Tottenham’s midfield for 77 minutes, until Ahtinen replaced him on the bench.
In the end, Tottenham equalized and won the match in the extra time of Martha Thomas on the finish line.
ManU lost to Chelsea in last year’s final, but got revenge less than a month ago in the semi-finals, when the team beat Chelsea 2-1.
Finnish players are valued in the club
Summanen and Ahtinen have played a strong season in the London team. Korpela says that the Finnish duo is valued at Tottenham.
Summanen, who excels in midfield in particular, has been a key player and played 18 matches in the English Super League. No Tottenham player has played in more league matches.
At the same time, four goal assists have also been created.
– He is a hard worker on the field, whom you can completely trust, even though off the field he is a relaxed, outgoing and even relaxed Lappeenranta resident, Korpela laughs good-naturedly.
Attacking midfielder Ahtinen has managed to score once in the league. Sainio emphasizes the position of Finnish players in the team.
– “Eve” and Olga are supporting forces and play big minutes and take their team to the FA Cup final. It says a lot about them as players, Sainio estimates.
Tottenham is sixth in the league, ManU is fifth, seven points ahead. Swedish coach Robert Vilahamn has been Tottenham’s head coach since last summer. The opening season has been promising for the coach who has dreamed of Wembley since childhood.
– I’ve worked for 30 years to get to this stadium, so I’m just trying to enjoy myself. I hope we win, but they are early favourites. I’m looking forward to the match, 41-year-old Vilahamn said for the BBC.
In his career, Sainio played in the final of the German Cup with Turbine Potsdam. In a football-crazy country, the event was huge and remained in Sainio’s memory, even though he didn’t play a second in the match.
– On the bench I felt the magnitude of the match, when there were around 40,000 spectators at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, Sainio recalls.
He says that cold colors take over his body when he thinks about Summanen and Ahtinen’s situation.
– Those are feelings that only a professional athlete can get in his career. When walking to the field, both of you can have a moment where you realize that “wow, it’s cool, now let’s enjoy it”, Sainio says.
Playing for huge audiences makes the 38-year-old Korpela giddy.
– People my age remember the times when we played for small audiences. Now they have a lot of trailing zeros, which is great. The players and the public deserve it, the goalkeeper of the national team enthuses.