Manchester City's Steph Houghton excited by talk of record Women's FA Cup final crowd
Thursday 2 May 2019 12:23, UK
Manchester City captain Steph Houghton has expressed her excitement at the possibility of playing in front of a record crowd in Saturday's Women's FA Cup final at Wembley.
The attendance for the showpiece final has grown each year since it was first held at the stadium in 2015, and it is hoped last year's figure of 45,423 will be bettered when City face West Ham this weekend.
Houghton said: "To be playing in FA Cup finals at Wembley is obviously a dream come true.
"For women's football in this country, it's important we do play in the best stadiums and for me Wembley is the best in this country.
"So to hear that potentially it is going to be a record-breaking crowd come Saturday, you want to be playing in those kind of environments, in front of those fans, and hopefully we can put on a pretty good final."
On March 17 there was an attendance of 60,739 at the Wanda Metropolitano for the women's match between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, and 39,000 were present at the Allianz Stadium when Juventus Women took on Fiorentina later that month.
Houghton has been encouraged by the growth of women's football overall, and says the next three years are "so exciting" for the sport domestically.
"There's been so much progression," said Houghton. "You speak about the attendances of places in Europe that are getting unbelievable crowds to come and watch players play.
"For us here, especially at this club, we want to sustain those crowds but when it does get to the big finals, to be able to get in potentially 50,000. It just shows how much women's football interest there is here.
"The next three years are so exciting for women's football in this country; we've got the World Cup coming up in a month and a half, we've got the Olympics potentially next year, and another home Euros in 2021.
"We need to continue being the best that we can be in this country and getting people through the gates."
