OK, you know what’s coming. Say it with me: “The Magic of the Cup.” Across the 16 fourth-round ties played over the weekend in the women’s FA Cup, two results brought about the much-loved Cup Upset (Cupset). That is, only two teams managed to best an opposition from a higher league of the English women’s football pyramid.
In Liverpool, second-tier Birmingham City — who were only relegated from the Women’s Super League at the end of last season — claimed the first relative surprise of the day when they beat Everton by one goal to nil.
Birmingham had been a staple of the top tier of the women’s game since the inception of the WSL, and were league runners up in the early years of the Super League, just as they had been all the way to the final of the FA Cup before, even lifting the cup in 2012 before finishing as runners up in 2017.
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Although battling in the Championship, the Blues (as Birmingham are known) managed to retain many of their players when they were relegated and still possess a lot of experience…
