#conti cup 21/22 quarter finals

[theroleofimagination]

2021/22 Conti Cup Quarter Finals - Wednesday 19th January

14:00EST/19:00GMT/20:00CET

Man City vs Bristol City 📺 City+ (£)

14:15EST/19:15GMT/20:15CET

Arsenal vs Man Utd 📺 FA Player

14:30EST/19:30GMT/20:30CET

Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool

West Ham Utd vs Chelsea 📺 chelseafc.com/5th Stand app

[fawsldaily]

A Brief Guide to the FA Women’s Continental League Cup

Introduced in 2011 at the same as the FAWSL, the FA Women’s League Cup (often referred to simply as the Continental or Conti Cup) was originally open to only the then eight clubs of the FAWSL. It consisted of straight knock-out one leg ties and was played after the conclusion of the league campaign.

Due to the competition’s close relationship with the evolving FAWSL, it has had to go through many format alterations in response to fixture list requirements and the expanding number of clubs eligible for entry. 

The straight knock-out format was abolished in 2012 in favour of holding an initial group stage. In 2014 the competition was opened up to the second division of the pyramid (then known as FAWSL 2, now known as the FA Women’s Championship) which increased the number of clubs from eight to 18 and as a result the group stage was abolished returning the format to straight knock-out. The group stage was reinstated in 2016 and remains today. 

The 23 clubs of the FAWSL and FA Women’s Championship will contest the 2019/20 edition of the cup making it the largest to date. The group stage will consist of four regional groups of either five or six clubs and award the standard three points for a win or two for a draw. Group winners and group runners up will advance to the one leg quarterfinals which will be followed by one leg semifinals to be drawn on a home or away basis. The final is staged at a neutral venue which is typically announced after the conclusion of the group stage.

Group Stage Match Dates: 

21/22 Sept, 19/20 Oct, 2/3 Nov, 20/21 Nov, 11/12 Dec

Quarter Final: 15/16 January 2020 Semi Final: 29/30 January 2020 Final: 29 February 2020

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Arsenal are the most successful club in the competition with 5 wins and were also twice runners-up. A full breakdown of competition record for the current FAWSL clubs can be found on this post.

[theroleofimagination]

Hi, new woso fan here. Can you please explain about the Vitality Cup? I'm still quite new and I don't really understand what is going on...

Hello and welcome! No problem, here goes.

As well as the league competition (FAWSL being the top tier) that runs all season from September-May there are two Cup competitions:

Continental Tyres League Cup - between teams in the top 2 tiers (FA Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship). There are group stages and then quarter finals, semis and then the final in a neutral location. Those matches are usually played September-February, but because of covid and finishing last season's FA Cup at the start of this season the Conti Cup started later than usual. All matches except the final have been played so far - this season's Final is Chelsea vs Bristol City on Sunday 14th March.

Vitality Women’s FA Cup (Vitality is the sponsor, it was previously sponsored by SSE) - this is between all tiers of women’s football, and so there are various qualification rounds for the lower leagues and then the FAWC & FAWSL teams join in the 4th Round Proper of the competition (there are 13 rounds in total). There are around 300 teams involved and it usually starts with the Extra Preliminary Round in August and runs to the final in May. The final is played at Wembley Stadium and is a fantastic event, it’s been drawing 40,000+ for the last few years. Usually the matches for FAWSL teams are played January-May.

The FA Cup has been massively affected by Covid. The 2019/20 quarter finals were supposed to be played on 15th March 2020 but had to be postponed and were eventually played at the start of the 2020/21 season in September with the Final at Wembley eventually being played (with no crowd) in November.

This season's FA Cup has been very disrupted - as the early rounds are played between 'non-elite' teams in lower leagues they've had to stop training and playing completely during the lockdowns we've had in the UK since the start of the season whereas the FAWC and FAWSL have been able to continue. That means the FA Cup got through the preliminary and qualifying rounds to the First Round Proper (played all games of that round except 1) and then had to stop. There was talk of deciding the next round or two by a coin toss in order to finish the competition this season (which was completely ridiculous) but luckily have decided to restart the games from 31st March as the restrictions should have been lifted enough for the lower leagues teams to start training and playing again.

They've now decided dates for the Second, Third and Fourth Rounds Proper and are in talks for Fifth Round Proper. The quarters, semis and Final will be played at the start of the 2021/22 season in the autumn.

Hopefully it'll all go smoothly from now on, we'll see!

That was a slightly more complicated explanation due to all the covid changes but hope it made sense! Any other questions just let me know.

[theroleofimagination]

sorry if this has already been asked but when will the rest of the fa cup be played?

The Fifth Round is being played this coming Sunday (or the following Thurs for Chelsea-Everton) and then all the following rounds will be fitted into the first half of next season, just as the end of the 19/20 FA Cup was played at the start of this season.

The remaining rounds are the quarters, semis and final but I don't think the dates have been set for them yet other than I think the final will be in November.

The last 3 rounds of the 19/20 FA Cup were played 26/27 Sept (QF), 30 Sept/1 Oct (SF) and 1 Nov (Final) so I'd expect it to be similar dates this autumn. They obviously have to be fitted around all the WSL, Conti Cup and UWCL fixtures. Hope we'll be at the point that there will be fans for all the games and whoever gets to the Final can have a big crowd at Wembley. Plus, hopefully the 21/22 FA Cup can actually be completed in one season unlike the previous 2!