The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - England’s perfect start to World Cup qualifying: Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Anton Toloui as England beat Iceland 2-0 to maintain their 100% start to their World Cup qualifying campaign

This is The Guardian. Hello, I'm Faker others and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. The lionesses are two from two in their World Cup qualifiers. A goal and an assist from Lucy Bronze has been England top of the table ahead of that tantalising tussle with Spain in April. Elsewhere, there were wins for Scotland and Wales, and Northern Ireland finally named their new permanent manager. And in Australia, we'll discuss the Asian Cup and fears for the safety of the Iranian national team. All that plus, we'll take your questions. and that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

What's a panel we have today? Susie Wreck, good morning to you. Good morning. Looking snugly. Oh yeah. Got to keep warm. Always. I know.

Where is this spring? What did we get? Like a week of warm weather. That was it. Half an hour. Half an hour. Tom Gary with your smart new haircut. How are you?

I'm well, thanks for you. I gleefully turned off the heating last week and now it has come crawling back. But no, all fine, thank you. Glad you noticed the haircut. Looks good. Sorry. the listeners can't see it reveling in all its glory. Well, I know that just means you have to take loads of selfies and post them all over social media.

It's such a vain person that you are. I think you should be doing that straight after the pod. Anton de Louis, how are you? It's been a while. It's been a long time. How are you, Faye? Lovely to chat to you. And every day's a haircut for me.

I'm just envies of top. Listen, we have a lot of lionesses to do. Anton, Susie and Tom have been very, very busy on international duty. but the lioness is secured back-to-back victories kicking off their World Cup qualification with a 2-0 win over Iceland. Lucy Bronze headed the lionesses ahead before Georgia Stanway made sure a victory in the second half.

It was a professional win, I think it's fair to say. Susie, they dominated proceedings, limited Iceland to just one shot on target. So pleasing overall with their afternoon's work, perhaps. I actually thought it was an excellent performance. I really enjoyed watching it. I think it's the first timing in quite some time. that I've thought that the team has clicked so coherently,

particularly the sort of early on, the interaction between George Stanway, Lauren James, Lesiruso was just really, really nice. I found it hard to pick out a player in particular to highlight because I thought they were all very, very well organised, seemed to be on the same page. I don't know whether that's the effects of, you know, a winter break and then, you know,

kind of finding your rhythm against Ukraine, this is the chance to properly kind of get going again. Or could be, you know, the fact that this is a longer international window. So they've had more time to sort of work on that technical, tactical detail. But, yeah, I was really impressed with the performance. It was professional, decent. And as you say, they clicked again. And we always knew that Iceland, Tom, were going to be, you know,

more difficult opposition to break down than Ukraine. And they had to be patient, didn't they? They did. But what I quite enjoyed was how England were trying different ways to score and trying to just break them down in a much more creative way than perhaps what I'd feared, which was England struggling to break down the low block. They instead, they used the wide areas really well.

They used Lauren James really well. They overlapped really well at wide. And I thought it was interesting that across both matches, we saw Georgia Stanway positioned a lot higher up the pitch. She spoke about that in the mix zone afterwards and said how much she felt she'd thrived in that and enjoyed going a bit further forward than her normal position. I'm assuming that won't continue in harder,

fixtures such as the upcoming one against Spain, but, you know, England were essentially in like a kind of a four-one, four-one with two number tens, which Stanway was very effective in bursting into the box. So job done, well done. I think they'll wish they'd scored a couple more goals maybe to boost the goal difference in case the games against Spain are both level. But overall, a really solid camp in England will be pleased with their work they've done. Yeah, most definitely. Lucy Bronze marked her 145th cap with a player. of the match performance. I mentioned earlier a goal and an assist for her. She's 34 now, Anton, but still so integral to this England team. She's absolutely vital. I think very few players

play the foreback position in world football like Lucy Bronze. She just knows when to go forward. She knows when to step into midfield before foreback stepping into midfield was cool and sort of, you know, in fashion. She knows when to sort of make the burst into the box. And England's have a sort of Lucy bronze problem in a way because when she isn't in that team, attacking-wise, they don't have the same threats. And defensively, they don't have the sort of same sort of, same sort of emergency valve they can pull when she knows when to be in the right position. So she is still integral. And England basically needs to wrap her up and cotton wool over the next sort of year and a half just to make sure that she's going to be fit, in form and ready to go.

Because yes, England have a backup in Mayor Lettisiate. And that is the biggest compliment that Serena Bighamieh can give to Mayo Leticia, which is we see you as someone being clever enough to play like Lucy Bromson does, knows when to go forward, knows, understands where to be on the pitch. However, she's a centreback. We all know she's a centreback. So, you know, it's the kind thing where it's like, okay, England relied on Lucy Bidman. Serena Bidman didn't go out and say that specifically after the game, but she doesn't talk about individuals in such platitudes without reason, and she was doing that after the game on Saturday. So, look, yeah, Lucy Bonds is magnificent, but she's still playing magnificently.

And I was sitting pitch side when Poppy Patterson made her debut against Ukraine. And Lucy was sitting on the bench. And she was constantly shouting at Poppy, where to be, when to go forward, when to step inside, just telling her to be braver, to push forward to, you know, to sort of have confidence in the player that she is. She's integral off the field as well as on the field as well. I want to ask you about Lauren James, though, Susie, because Tom mentioned her. First appearance since the Euro 2025 final, and Serena Vigman decided to set her up on the left-hand side

and then put Lauren Hemp on the right. What was the thinking behind that, do you think? Serena Vigman spoke about it afterwards, and it was to deal with that deep block of Iceland and wanting to get behind that and knowing that you've got Lauren Hemp and Lauren James, who have that pace, but also can cut inside as needed, can interchange.

and it just opens things up a little bit when you've got that sort of diversity outwide and that skill level out wide. They saw those being the areas where they'd have the most threatened. I think it's an accident that a lot of the, I say a lot of the goals, the two goals came from that width on the left and the right. We talked last week, Tom, about the frustration of not keeping a clean sheet against Ukraine. They needed a big save from Hannah Hampton to stop an equaliser on Saturday. today as well. But, you know, I suppose they'd be happy with the way they handled Iceland's

attackers who are known for being strong on transition as well, although they didn't actually create that much in this game. Yeah, fantastic say from Hampton, which could have made it a very different afternoon if Iceland had equalised. But I think Sweeney Vigman highlighted before the game, didn't she, about wanting to look out for the pace and the directness of Iceland and England dealt with that really well in the way they kind of recycled the ball when they did lose it. They stop those counters before they even really started. We don't want to be too praising of them defensively because they weren't really tested. We didn't really see like a forensic analysis of how either Lotta Vim Moy or Esme

Morgan across either the two games, you know, would hold up against a stronger forward line because they weren't really tested. But, and the same applies to the left back positions with Taylor Hines and Poppy Pattinson weren't really scrutinized defensively just because of the opposition and the way England was so dominant. But that said, I think everybody can come out of it quite pleased with the way they show to be dependable and everybody, you know, show they were dependable and everybody came out of it, you know, with a solid performance and did what was expected. But I'm not going to sort of sit here and pretend that the back four were all magnificent because I don't think that would be

a fair reflection of how much they were tested. They just, I think the midfield controlled both games brilliantly. And very, very quietly, Kira Walsh was outstanding again. So, So her sort of marshalling of everything kind of stopped things happening defensively. So job done and a good say from Hampton. Yeah, we all know that Spain is going to be the test April and June. And we'll talk about the Wembley visit in a second. But I just want to look back at this camp as a whole, Anton, and what the biggest takeaways for England have been, positive and negative.

It's the first international window of the year, the beginning of the World Cup qualifying camp. pain, not the sternest tests to be facing, but, you know, how did they get on overall, do you think? Yeah, really well. I think England are top of the group and their goal difference is better than Spain. So that was the primary objective to achieve those things before coming in. I think personnel-wise, it's interesting because you can't really talk too much about these games without looking ahead to Spain. And we're talking about the role of Georgia Stanway and talking about the introduction of new fourbacks. Well, is that going to be the case when England take on Spain? So at least Serena Bighman

probably has a little bit more of a look at Taylor Hines now, for example. They know they can survive defensively, potentially without Alex Greenwood. And the plan was definitely to play Alex Greenwood, at least in one of these two games, and she's missed out with a quite minor muscle injury. So basically, they don't want to risk her for Manchester City in the run-in. So, but England now know they can take 100 plus caps out of that defence and potentially be okay. And I think that's a big thing coming into, coming into this World Cup qualification,

England, certain to the players, they wanted to go out there and just play a kind of a shored brand of football. You didn't have to worry about England. You didn't have to worry about them to sort of dig deep and rely on vibes and momentum all that kind of thing that got them through the summer. They just wanted to go out there and be professional and win some games of football without worrying and without basically just showing how good they are or sort of just winning games in third gear.

I think it was actually quite a positive thing for this, for this England team. I think they needed that in a way. Just go, look, we are, you know, the setup works. We don't need to panic. We don't need to throw players off the bench. We can name an 11, win against teams we should be winning against. then looked to bigger, bigger games ahead. And that's exactly what England wanted to do at the start of this block.

And they achieved that. And also, I think now Serena Vigman has to sit down and think about, how can we beat Spain? Do we go with this brand of football where we play a more attacking foreback and we play Georgia's halfway further forward? And we play Jess Park behind Alessia Russo, which is a big call if you're going to play against Spain. But at least she knows now she can play more inexperienced and more attacking players

and get good results. Yeah. Although, you know, we did discuss last week that goal difference has not gone in England's favor previously and so it's really important to rack the goals up. They are, you know, as you mentioned, at top of the table on goal difference, but it is Spain next. Sonia Bermudez's side beat Iceland 3-0 and Ukraine 3-1. So effectively a win at Wembley as we knew anyway would put either side in the driving seat. We knew that the pressure was going to be there, Susie. Does it feel as if there's more now it's kind of around the corner if you like? I mean, this is an exciting

fixture always, but you know, there's so much riding on it. Could we potentially get a bit of a cagey game as a result of that? I think we will not necessarily see a cagey game, but see a very kind of controlled chess match of a game. And it's disappointing that it's coming at this stage of qualifying because you're going to end up with a situation where one of these teams with, you know, some of the best players in the world, potentially one of those teams and those players is going to have an extra four games and go through, well, I say potentially, one of those teams will have an extra four games and have to go through a qualifying campaign that they really could do without. So, like, I think there's a real issue with the World Cup qualifying format and the way it works,

which we've complained about previously. But, yeah, I mean, there's always going to be pressure when it comes to playing Spain. I feel personally, relatively optimistic going into this fixture, given the camp we've just watched. Like, I think it was a really solid camp. And then, you know, we can crack on and hopefully really. enjoy a show. Spain are dangerous. Whenever you face them, Spain have played Sweden twice in the Nations League semi-final, Germany twice in the Nations League final and drawn one of those three games, one, all of the others. So when they're playing big opposition, they do just as well as

they do against small opposition. So it's difficult to ask. I'm really excited as well to see Edna Imrade as well, who only got her Spanish naturalisation on the 19th of November and then was called up to the camp in November two days later. She was born in Morocco to Nigerian parents, so she was originally going to play for Nigeria. And she scored in both games of this window. So a really tight turnaround, exciting player who is now in their fold and potentially very dangerous forwards. But as we've seen, they scored six goals across the last two games. She scored twice. So an exciting player to watch. And can we say the important thing for all the listeners, which is that the report

in the Spanish media are that the reverse fixture in June away against Spain is going to be played in Mallorca. So what I want to know from you, Faye, is are we taking the pod on the road to Magaloof? Oh, well, that is a question for the higher ups, I would say. Producer Sof has just told me she is on it. And as our travel guru here on the pod, I fully trust that she is already pushing that through. That would be wonderful, wouldn't it? Listen, elsewhere, Scotland and Wales both racked up significant wins at home. Scotland put seven past Luxembourg at Hamden Park,

while Wales earned their first three points of qualifying with a six-one victory over Montenegro in Hlanethley. Northern Ireland, meanwhile, suffered a 1-0 defeat in the hands of Turkey in Lurgan. A news dropped yesterday about the appointment of Michael McArdle as their new permanent manager as well. How would you sum up the start of qualifying for the rest of the home nations, Tom? Really strong from Scotland. it was the Caroline Weir show, wasn't it?

A hat trick in the first game and then four assists in the next game. But I don't think they'll be getting too over-excited about the way they played against Luxembourg, who we would expect them to beat. Wells will be really happy. That late equalizer from the Middle East shoes in the way game against the Czech Republic was priceless because they'll need to try and finish above the Czech Republic if they want to top the group and be seeded in the playoffs. For Northern Ireland, a difficult start.

But yeah, as you say, new manager now coming in. big games for them in the next camp, the double-heder against Malta, which I think will be where it determines whether they finish third in the group or whether Malta finishes fourth in third in the group. And that will be important because, A, to get into the playoffs, but also to reduce chances of being relegated to the third tier. Obviously, Norman in a bit of transition right now, and they've got quite a difficult group,

but the Malta games will be the most important. So all lies on April for them. And as for, yeah, Scotland and Wales, they've both got a great chance, actually. for those who don't know the intricacies of the playoffs essentially, if you're in League B, as Scotland and Wales and Ovaland are, if you can finish top of your group, you're seeded for that first round of playoffs,

so you won't be able to face a team from the lower portion of the top tier. You would then play a League B runner-up or a League B third-place side in the first round of the playoffs. So that can make a massive difference to your chances of qualifying. And I think they've both got a really good chance of doing that, particularly for Wales, if you look at the group, Wales avoided Finland and they avoided Belgium. So they had a really favourable draw. So it's a golden opportunity for both of them.

As for Scotland, the big challenges to Belgium with that double header coming up in April. Sorry, can I just say that obviously this is an audio medium, but seeing Tom Gary enter his sort of his mind palace when he's going through qualifications and groups and brackets and that kind of thing. He's almost like a conductor. His arms come out. He starts waving. He starts visualising exactly where he's. teams are going to go. It is a beautiful thing to watch. A mind palace. I love that. I love that analogy as well. That's brilliant. That's it. Next time I introduce you, I'm going to call you the

mind king, Tom. I think that's a really favourable way of phrasing it from Anton very kindly. What others would describe it as, I'm just fidgeting. You are now mind king. A couple of notable results elsewhere. The Republic of Ireland suffered a narrow two one defeat in the Netherlands. Serbia held Sweden to a draw. Germany put four past Norway and Slovenia defeated Austria by a goal to nil. Right, that's it for part one of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. In part two, we're going to look at how some of the other nations fared in qualifying and catch up on all things Asian Cup and Wafcon.

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Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Right, some big news coming out of Australia over the last 48 hours. And it concerns the Iranian women. team and some serious fears around their safety. On the last pod we covered that the national team had stayed silent during the Iranian national anthem in their Asian Cup opener. Following that, the team were labelled traitors by Iranian state television, raising concerns around their safety when they returned. After their final group game against the Philippines and their departure

from the tournament, their team bus was crowded by supporters while there was a standoff at the Team Hotel on Monday as they prepared to return to Iran. It was then reported that five players had escaped their minders amid speculation. Some of them would be trying to seek asylum and were being protected by Australian police. They were granted temporary humanitarian visas by the Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Tuesday morning. Protesters surrounded the bus again as the rest arrived at Gold Coast Airport as they started to begin their journey back. surveillance by their mind is. This is what FIFA spokesperson has told the Guardian. The safety and security of Iran's women's national team is FIFA's priority and we therefore remain in

close contact with the relevant Australian authorities, including Football Australia, in relation to the team's situation. It is a really fluid situation at the moment. So what you're hearing right now may be slightly out of date by the time you hear it. But it is really concerning, Susie, what we're hearing. What are your thoughts? Yeah, and there's actually a fantastic Guardian podcast that went up in the early hours full story, which has Sam Lewis on it, who has been leading a lot of our coverage of the competition in Australia. And it's a really interesting, like 20 minute listen with a lot of detail about what's been taking place. But yeah, it's a horrific situation.

The reality is that the players face a pretty unimaginable choice if they are actually able to make it even, because they're being so reportedly so controlled by their minders to the extent of which there's even allegedly been a member of the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as a part of the staff around the team. And that's officially labelled a terrorist organisation. And reportedly, some members that were applied for as part of the team delegation were rejected on that basis.

But this one has slipped through the net and has been facing a lot of, abuse from verbal abuse from fans who have, who have recognised him amongst their party. So it's a really kind of horrific, controlled situation that the players are in. And they've got a really, really tough decision if they can escape that, which five have somehow got away from the hotel and managed to claim asylum. But, you know, obviously we saw that they were dubbed wartime traitors and it was the pinnacle of dishonour to not sing the national anthem in the opening game. But it also, that same commentator called for them to be dealt with more.

severely and there's also been reports that their families back home are being threatened if they don't return you know some of these the youngest players 18 some of these players are very young and that's a really difficult position to be put in go home and face potentially devastating consequences or put your family in a really vulnerable position or your all your teammates or your club teammates whatever it may be so it's a really really difficult situation apparently according to some of the reporting from Australia it's been something that the Australian government have been working on for some time, potentially even from the start of the team arriving in Australia. And, you know, they've been given temporary humanitarian

visas, which gives a pathway to permanent residency. But yeah, it's a horrific situation, hugely troubling. And you just hope that those that are out and those that head back are given enough, there's enough publicity around it that there's a degree of protection. But I seriously doubt that there will be for those that do have to go back. Just following on from what's easy was saying that, obviously I am half Iranian. My family fled from Iran decades ago. And I think one thing that has been lost in the conflict and what's happened over the last sort of week is the human cost and the repression that's been taking place in Iran,

it has been ratcheted up over the last few months as well, but especially over the last few decades. And it's horrendous. And I think that we're actually talking about the human cost of this now, which is so important. It's horrendous that these people are having to go through this situation of just wanting to go to a football tournament, the world changing, and then not knowing what the rest of their lives are going to look like. The situation is that other sports people face this every time they leave Iran to go and represent their country. And we'll talk about it, going into the Men's World Cup. We talked about it at the previous Men's World Cup.

But it's not just footballists as effects. there's anybody that is basically made to represent the Islamic Republic of Iran. And it's a terrifying time in that country, but it's also a terrifying time for anybody that just wants to play sport, and they have to put a certain crest on their chest, and then therefore they have to represent a bunch of values. They probably have nothing to do with. So I'm really pleased that the Australian government has stepped in

and kind of offered what they can, and the fact that they were, there's talk that there was, this was potentially going to be sort of a situation they were going to look at before the tournament is really positive and I really hope that's taken into consideration by other sports organisations of any international event going forward.

Yeah, absolutely. And we will keep you updated on all the latest situation and hopefully the protection of these players. On the pitch, the group stage comes to an end this morning so at the time of recording Australia, North Korea, China, Korea Republic, Japan and Uzbekistan, have progressed at the quarters. Two teams left to be decided.

We'll talk about the hosts Australia. They finished second in their group. They had a three-old draw against Korea Republic. Needed a 98th minute equaliser from Alana Kennedy, actually, to seal that point. But it's not really been a convincing start to the tournament from Joe Montemuro's side, Anton. How concerned should Matilda's fans be?

They have North Korea next. And actually, North Korea have been in particularly impressive form at the start. Yeah, they have. I think, you know, obviously, I think it's just welcome to tournament football, the chaos of tournament football. You know, it's talking to, we were all out there in the summer and we all saw what tournament football can do to a team. You don't have to be the best team throughout. You just have to do the best team for a few minutes and get through. And I think that's what Australia fans are finding out right now.

I think Joe Montemore is taking a little bit of criticism and a little bit of sort of reflection about the team he's selecting. It's a, you know, it's a little conservative in some of the players he's picking, especially in the sort of midfield areas. is very, very experienced the team he's picking as well. So there are going to be some sort of difficult decisions, I think, for him going forward, because conceding the three goals at home in front of 60,000 of your own fans to Korea Republic, that was not supposed to happen. So they can't go in looking so defensively fragile. Entering Tom Garry's Mind Palace, I think, you know, you look at the tournament brackets now

and you think, well, actually, this isn't necessarily a bad thing finishing second in the group. I think they potentially avoid Japan unless they get to the final. Yep, Tom Gary's nodding at me, so that's, there you go. I've successfully navigated his tournament bracket. Maybe there is method in Montemuro madness. Exactly. Well, that was lovely to hear. So, yeah, I think, you know, there are benefits to finishing second in the group

because Japan just look magnificent in this tournament. And they are, you know, the fact that they've got, you know, at the time of recording, three players that have scored three goals individually already suggests that, you know, they are a threat from anywhere in the pitch as well. So the fact that Australia avoid them to the final is a positive. But yeah, I think Australia really need to just figure out their best starting 11 and not necessarily have to rely on Alana Kennedy and vibes just to get them through because they're a better team than that.

Finally on this, Tom, you know, we know this isn't just about winning a trophy. It's qualification for the World Cup. That's the important thing at stake. So the four semi-finalists are going to book their spot at next year's tournament automatically. and the four losing quarter-finalists will have to be involved in playoffs to decide the remaining two places. That's right, isn't it? So stakes pretty high. If you lose your quarter-final, I believe it's being phrased as a play-in where you play other losing quarter-finalists. And then if you win that, you're through to Brazil as well.

And then if you lose that, then you head into the inter-confederational payoff. I hope that's the right name. intergalactic play game match fixture thing. But in summary, yeah, it adds a lot of extra benefit to winning your quarterfinal because this tournament's sort of doubling up as a qualification campaign. And if you were to lose your quarterfinal, you might have quite a long wait to know whether you were going to go to Brazil, which for a nation such as Australia who will want to be really competitive in that World Cup, then qualifying automatically by winning this quarterfinal

against North Korea is going to be essential. I'm with Anton. I think there's advantages to be in the other half of the draw. I don't think that we're too disappointed with that to avoid Japan's great. But what's probably more concerning is how unconvincing that they've been so far. But yeah, as we know in tournament football, just get through and then see what happens. I think Japan looked great. So I think we spoke before the tournament started, didn't we, about who looked strong

and Japan to me remain the favourites. So let's see. Well, that means that they're not going to win. then, doesn't it? Because as we know, on the Guardian Women's Football Weekly, our predictions are terrible, so thank you for cursing them. Japanese fans everywhere, delighted with you there, Tom Gary.

Listen, we mentioned the chaos surrounding Wafcon 2026 last week. We do now know that the tournament's been officially postponed until the 25th of July. That announcement came just 12 days before the original kickoff was due to take place. Nigeria's Ashley Plumptory,

just one of the players criticizing that decision. This is what she had to say, just wouldn't happen for other tournaments in women's football and especially in men's football. Last Wafcon wasn't less important than this one, just because it wasn't a qualification for a World Cup. This is the first time it's the addition where there are 16 teams, all of which are going to want to be able to go and qualify for the World Cup, and this is a big deal for many teams. And look, we discussed this at length, Susie last week, so not much more to add, apart from the fact that, you know, utter chaos, all planning out of the window and just pour

all round, really. Honestly, the thing that gets me is that the line in the statement that is due to unforeseen circumstances. Now, I'm not being funny, but we've been talking about this for the last month. So the idea that it's then postponed so, so close to the start of the tournament is absurd. Like, those unforeseen circumstances presumably haven't gone away. They were foreseen. They were very much foreseen. And you kind of think, you know, you take that decision early if it's absolutely necessary.

And you kind of save the chaos of kind of going through this window, trying to prepare for a tournament that you don't know whether or not it's going to be happening. Or you find a way to make it happen. And the fact that we've reached this point where it's called off so soon before and pushed back till July is just so poor. And you wouldn't see it in any major men's tournament and you wouldn't see it in most major women's tournaments now either. So it's particularly disappointing.

I agree with the things Susie said. But if this was the UEFA, women's euros had been postponed. We would be expecting Sheffering or Nadine Kessler or both to resign. The media would be demanding that from all across Europe because of the shambles. So we need to see that pressure on CAF. People need to resign. Very good point. Let's over our attention quickly back to domestic football.

It's the first chance of silverware in England up for grabs this weekend. It always catches me off guard, the League Cup. Always. I'm like, oh no, it's March. How's that happened? How are we already fighting for a trophy? Chelsea and Manchester United meeting at Ashton Gate in the Subway League Cup final Sunday afternoon it is. And actually it feels quite a while ago now. The last time these two sides played was against each other in the FA Cup fifth round and Chelsea came through that to one in extra time. You expecting any

differences or is it going to be much the same, Susie? It's a tricky one. I think it's going to be probably their most closely fought contest in recent time. Obviously that FAA Cup fifth round match was pretty tight but the stakes here in a final that little bit higher, it could totally go either way for me. But I would never bet against Chelsea in a cup final ever. Well, you can't, can you? But Manchester United playing really well. Chelsea missing Ellie Carpenter and Sam Kerr. Manchester United without Hinata, Miazawa, with all three still involved in the Asian Cup. I mean, that could have an impact.

How much of an impact, though, will the absentees have on both sides, Tom? I don't think too much. Obviously, their losses, but I still think both teams have got really strong starting 11s that can cope with those absentees. I think this is the moment when we need to see Manchester United kind of come of age in these big matches. They competed well against Chelsea recently in the FA Cup, But sort of when it came down to the finer margin, just didn't quite have enough in those small moments. They've been slowly gaining more experience in sort of big games.

But I think now as a neutral, I want to see them step up and make this a really, really competitive final. And I do think Man United already, it's about some of these players who we've seen developing and kicking on, trying to become sort of senior players and stepping up in a big final like this. and can we see somebody like Jess Park thrive on a stage like this? Can we see players such as Mayor Leticia, you know, performs at her absolute best as we have seen her do so well consistently in the league games? And there's also now the likes of Rolfo, who has been in so many finals across her whole career,

who can bring in that experience and potentially make the difference. So I think it's really finely poised. It feels like make or break, actually, for Chelsea's season, which I feel like we've said a few times actually in the pods, Anton, for United a chance to make history again. Who do you think the win is more important for as we end the business end of the season? This is gut check time for Chelsea.

This is because they've been synonymous with the last 10 years. It doesn't matter how well they're playing. They will dig deep into the depths of their big bags of determination and pull something out. Well, they haven't been able to do that this season. They haven't been able to win games when they're playing poorly. So they are synonymous who are winning titles. They're synonymous with doing whatever it takes to beat anyone in English football.

They're probably going to have to do that this weekend because they aren't clicking. They aren't playing some of a brand of football that we saw a year, 18 months ago, to Sonia Bon Pastore when she first came in. So they might just need to be stronger, more experienced. They know they're going to have to play really, really, really smart football over the next few weeks. to save their season. So they can go out, win a trophy, and just say, do you know what? Manchester United have been playing some brilliant stuff this season.

We're talking about how fluid they are. We're talking about all their attacking options. And do you know what? We just kiboshed that. We just made sure we put that to the side and we just Chelsea'd them. They need to do that again. They might need to do that for the rest of the season. And the best place to start that is on Sunday at Bristol City.

Listen, I want to touch on some horrendous news that we heard at the weekend with the announcement the 15-year-old Amelia Applin and Oxford United Academy player died after collapsing during a fixture against Fulham. This is the statement from Oxford United. It's with immense sadness that we announced the passing of 15-year-old academy player Amelia Applin. The thoughts and sincere condolences from everyone at Oxford United are with Amelia's family, friends, teammates and coaches.

We'd like to place on record our appreciation for the efforts of the medical staff for Oxford United and Fulham Football Club, along with the emergency centre. services. The club will offer support to Amelia's family, players, coaches and staff impacted by this tragic event. We would ask that the family's privacy is respected at this incredibly difficult time. And listen, it's really devastating news. There's nothing we can add to it, apart from our thoughts are with all of Amelia's family and friends at this awful, awful time. And this feels like the weirdest junction into a listener email. But we have had

one from Chris Plowman regarding scheduling, which is something we've discussed before, but actually this is slightly different. This is the email. I just want to have a bit of a rant about the decision to schedule the last day of the WSL2 on the same day as the men's championship season ends. For my team, Ipswich Town, we have a home men's game at 1230 against QPR, where as things stand, we'll confirm our position in the top two or in the playoffs. And then the women's home game against Sunderland at home at 3 o'clock, where we'll hopefully confirm our position in the WSL 2 for next season. Both games likely to be massively important, games that fans will want to attend both of. Ipswich women playing Colchester, so the likelihood of making that

journey after the end of the men's game and getting there before half time at the earliest, is very slim, especially after the pitch invasion as we go up to the Premier League, very positive. Seven of the 12 teams in the WSL2 have men's teams in the championship, so they're going to face similar scenarios. I fail to see any logic in moving the games from the usual 2pm on Sunday that's worked perfectly well for seasons up to this point. And the WSL seemed to have not provided any explanation. Hopefully you can get some answers for us. Anyone know a little bit more on this? We had an answer yet. Yeah, well, it's understandable frustration from the fans there. One of the things that I think is happening here is that the chance for all of the matches to be on a

Saturday at 3 o'clock, I think it's noticeable. The league clearly trying to test and learn or whether that boosts attendance is on a Saturday afternoon for such important matches. What I would add is that there's a lot of challenges for the league in times of trying to manoeuvre around the men's football fixture schedule and particularly they're often trying to avoid Premier League clashes. And in this case as well, we have the Women's Champions League semifinals on the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May.

So to a certain degree, I was advised that there was perhaps a hope that the Saturday Devilsel 2 finale would not clash with hypothetically two English teams being in the Champions League semifinal second leg on the Sunday. But that's not a particularly helpful answer. I appreciate for fans who are confused that they've now got a men's game and women's game on the same day. What is, I think, important is that there is no stadia clashes on that day. Everyone has to kick off at the same time on the same day.

So you can't even have one single stadium clash issue. I think that's probably been the most difficult consideration for the organiser series, trying to find a slot where they knew that nobody else was going to need any of those stadiums at all. And the more controversial decision, I think, was to put the playoff game on the Saturday 23rd, the same day as the Women's Champions League final. I completely understand why the playoff game is on that weekend, because I couldn't have it the following weekend because of the Women's FAC Cup final, and you couldn't have it later than that

because then suddenly you'd be into June and the WSL2 side wouldn't have played for well over a month. So I think it did have to be the weekend that it's on, but I'm not sure why it couldn't have been on either the Sunday or the bank holiday Monday, but that's now going to clash with the Women's Championship League finals. So, yeah, difficult decisions all around, but there's no, as we know, it's very congested

and there's no easy solutions. And then you've also got the very frustrating situation that all the games on the 15th are at 1155 on the Sunday, bar the ones midweek, which is a very random time, not ideal. I know it's done to avoid the MEMS Premier League kickoffs and so they can hit broadcasts and stuff,

but it's just a very early time for fans to get to games, particularly away games. It's not ideal. There needs to be a whole look at scheduling ahead of next season, I think. It's interesting what the psychology of 1155 versus 12 o'clock, because we've had lots of 12 o'clock kickoffs, and we actually haven't talked that much about it. It's only five minutes, but for some reason, 1155 seems so much earlier than a 12 o'clock kickoff.

And you're right, the scheduling does need looking at, which I'm sure is one of many priorities, without a doubt. Thank you for that email, Chris, by the way. You've got Tom's Mind Palace sparkling away. The eyes were shut, the arms were out. Keep having your say. Sending your questions via X. You can email this as well at Women's Football Weekly at the Guardian.com, as Chris just did.

This is also your regular reminder to sign up for our biweekly women's football newsletter. All you need to do is search moving the goalposts sign up. Anton, it's been lovely to have you on. We won't leave it so long next time. Thanks for having me.

I appreciate it. Tom Gary, go and exercise that mind palace. Thank you very much. Have a lovely day, Faith. Susie Rack. See you very soon. See you soon. I need to channel my inner Tom

because that's clearly a decent arm workout, right? Like, he's ticked a box for the day. He's called two birds of one. He's done his exercise. Yeah. Right, the Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Holly Fisher. Music composition was by Laura Iodale. Our executive producer is Joel Grove.

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