Lauren Hemp double sinks West Ham to book Wembley date for Manchester City

Manchester City tactically flexed their muscles against West Ham in the first of the FA Cup semi-finals, comfortable 4-1 winners on a cloudless afternoon in east London.

Gareth Taylor’s side are now on the path to securing their second piece of silverware this season after their Continental Cup triumph against Chelsea in March, who they may face again should the Blues emerge victorious in the second semi-final against Arsenal on Sunday.

West Ham took a leaf from the book of the reigning champions, starting the game with an aggressive high press; clearly, they had taken some learnings from the 2-0 defeat suffered at the hands of City in the WSL a fortnight ago.

The 3-5-2 formation set up by Olli Harder looked to put those insights into practice, stifling and snuffing out the City attack, while testing a defence that featured two recent returnees from injury: Alanna Kennedy and Alex Greenwood.

For the most part, it worked. Both players were made to feel uncomfortable, Kennedy who appeared in a facemask having broken her nose in a friendly encounter against New Zealand on Tuesday, by Katerina Svitkova, and Greenwood by Lisa Evans. The latter had been nursing a bad knee, and it showed when she gave away possession and almost allowed Dagny Brynjarsdóttir to open the scoring in the 12th minute. Still, City did not panic, and instead waited for West Ham’s collective press to stutter. That’s exactly what happened in the 22nd minute via an almighty strike at goal from Keira Walsh that rattled the underside of the crossbar. Before Mackenzie Arnold could figure out where the ball was, Ellen White had acted first to snap up another poacher’s finish.

City were now smelling blood, bypassing the press with ease and forcing them into