Melvine Malard celebrates with team-mates after scoring against Chelsea in World Sevens final.
Melvine Malard celebrates with team-mates after scoring against Chelsea in World Sevens final.
The Reds won four games out of four to set up a winner-takes-all meeting with the Blues, who came from 4-1 and 5-4 down to win 6-5 as Aggie Beever-Jones struck the decisive goal in the final minute.
It meant United had to settle for second place in the innovative seven-a-side cup for the second successive year, after being pipped to the prize by Bayern Munich in Portugal 12 months ago.
But Marc Skinner’s side have fully embraced the three-day tournament, in which eight English teams competed at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium, and secured $250,000 in prize money.
The two teams who met in this season’s Subway Women’s League Cup showpiece took to the pitch again and contested the highest-scoring final in World Sevens history, as United finished the tournament as the leading scorers with 27 goals.
United Women team picture before away game v Chelsea | 16 May 2026
United Women team picture before away game v Chelsea | 16 May 2026
After making a bright start to the game, Jess Park opened the scoring in the sixth minute of the 30-minute finale before Sjouke Nusken clipped in an equaliser for Chelsea two minutes later.
Park netted again for her sixth goal of the tournament with a ferocious angled drive, Anna Sandberg headed home from close range and Melvine Malard’s emphatic one-on-one finish put United 4-1 ahead in 11 minutes.
Chelsea, however, came roaring back as Keira Walsh, Beever-Jones and Ellie Carpenter netted in the space of three-and-a-half minutes to bring the Blues level at the break.
Lea Schuller converted 40 seconds after the restart to give United the lead again and the Reds had further chances to extend the advantage through last year’s Breakout Star of the tournament Simi Awujo, who forced two excellent saves from Blues goalkeeper Hannah Hampton.
But Beever-Jones nodded in an equaliser for Chelsea before she completed her hat-trick on the break with her eighth goal of the tournament, as United trailed for the first time in any game in the competition with 23 seconds left to play.
It meant the Blues forward finished one goal ahead of Park and Malard in the race for the Golden Boot, and she secured the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player.
Drawn in Group 2, the Reds beat West Ham 5-4 in our opening match on Thursday, after a hat-trick from Elisabeth Terland and two goals from Malard.
On Friday, Skinner’s side saw off Aston Villa 4-0 with goals from Malard, Sandberg, Millie Turner and Park, before thumping Tottenham Hotspur 8-2 - thanks to Park’s hat-trick and goals from Malard, Sandberg, Schuller, Julia Zigiotti and Maya Le Tissier - to advance to the semi-finals as group winners.
After Chelsea swatted Aston Villa aside with an 8-2 scoreline in the first semi-final on Saturday, it was the Reds’ turn to take to the field against Everton, in a meeting of the group stage’s two highest-scoring teams.
Simi Awujo celebrates scoring her second goal for United Women against Everton
Simi Awujo celebrates scoring her second goal for United Women against Everton
In a topsy-turvy first half, Terland and Awujo had United 2-0 ahead inside 11 minutes before Everton responded through Katja Snoeijs. A minute later, Malard located the top corner before Everton’s Kelly Gago poked home 14 seconds later to make it 3-2.
Everton were much improved in a tighter second period before United sealed our passage to the final by scoring twice in the final two minutes, through a deflected Schuller strike and Awujo’s close-range effort.
With some impressive walkouts, eye-catching football and clinical finishing to boot, there were plenty of memorable moments throughout the competition for the Reds, who can now reset and recharge over the summer before the hard work begins to prepare for next season.