West Ham's Adriana Leon in action with Reading's Mayumi Pacheco in the SSE Women's FA Cup semi final.MATTHEW CHILDS/Reuters
Canadian internationals Janine Beckie and Adriana Leon are headed to the SSE Women’s FA Cup final.
Beckie’s Manchester City advanced Sunday by defeating defending-champion Chelsea via a Magdalena Eriksson own-goal in second-half stoppage time. The Swedish international inadvertently knocked Demi Stokes’s cross past her own goalkeeper for the game’s lone goal.
Beckie, a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen whose parents are from Saskatchewan, came off the bench in the 67th minute in Man City. The 24-year-old has 25 goals in 54 appearances for Canada.
Chelsea knocked Man City out of the competition at the semi-final stage in 2015, 2016 and 2018.
In High Wycombe, substitute Leon did her part in West Ham’s 4-3 penalty shooutout win over Reading earlier in the day.
Leon, a 26-year-old native of King City, Ont., who has 14 goals in 55 appearances for Canada, made it 2-1 for the Hammers in the shootout. Cho So-hyun scored the decisive spot kick to send West Ham to the final for the first time.
Reading took the lead in the 48th minute through Rachel Furness’s header, before Alisha Lehmann equalized in the 57th minute for visiting West Ham. Leon came on after the tying goal.
Reading missed a penalty during regulation time with Fara Williams hitting the post.
The final is scheduled for May 4 at Wembley.
The Man City women are after the treble this year. They have already won the FA Women’s Continental League Cup with Beckie converting her spot kick in a penalty shootout win over Arsenal.
They currently stand second in the FA Women’s Super League at 13-0-5, one point behind Arsenal (15-2-0).