Tottenham Women make history with brilliant comeback to reach FA Cup final – but immediately hit with blow

Tottenham Hotspur Women made history by reaching their first ever FA Cup final with a 2-1 victory over Leicester.

Spurs needed extra time to reach the Wembley showpiece and, with just two minutes remaining, Martha Thomas sent the home fans wild.

The Scotland striker, previously denied by a fingertip save from Lize Kop in the dying embers of the opening 90 minutes, nodded past her Dutch opponent after Spurs’ opponents failed to clear their lines .

Tottenham had to work hard for victory, with Leicester fighting to the end in a thrilling FA Cup encounter.

The Foxes took the lead after 12 minutes and it was a superb strike from Finnish star Jutta Rantala that sealed their progress, a fitting goal for an FA Cup semi-final at Spurs’ new arena.

The 24-year-old came out from the left flank to fire a left-footed strike past Becky Spencer in the Tottenham goal.

However, Spurs had plenty of possession and, after some smart second-half substitutions, looked well in control.

With seven minutes remaining, a lob over the Leicester defense saw former Spurs star Josie Green turn but fail with her attempted clearance.

In swept past Naz to run clear and a composed finish was slipped into the far corner past Lize Kop.

Both teams had chances to win but, ultimately, Thomas was the player of the moment who rose higher on defense.

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However, in the other semi-final, Manchester United beat Chelsea 2-1, which immediately dented Tottenham’s victory hopes on Sunday (May 12).

The Red Devils are the parent club of England international Grace Clinton.

Clinton will no doubt feel hard hit by the previous FA Cup heartbreak.

She was an unused substitute against Man City in a 3-1 defeat to Everton in 2020, while last season she was on loan as Man United lost 1-0 to Chelsea.

And her current boss Robert Vilahamn told BBC Sport: “I just feel sorry for her. She doesn’t get the chance to play at Wembley in a grand final. We have a great team and a lot of good players. We know why she can’t play.” against them, but we have a lot of players who can do this job, it’s mostly (sorry) for her.”

After the match, the Tottenham boss also joined talkSPORT to discuss his side’s incredible feat.

He said during Sunday’s session: “I had a good feeling because I thought we did a pretty good second half. The players who came in did some good things.

“We felt like we had some good chances and we came back late in other games as well.

“I had a feeling we were going to find ways and we did.”

“This is a very important step. We have a vision that we want to compete on this stage every year and we have to get used to it and we have to learn to play in this big stadium. Today you saw that we can manage this and Wembley will have even more fans.

“We can already win a title this year, but we want to do it next year and the year after that too. It’s a good thing to do something historic.”