Macario ready to set injury songs in the FA Cup final against Man United

Chelsea returns to Wembley in 11 years to get the Seventh Fa Cup final for women after winning five of them, but for the US strikers Catarina Macario is the first time that it is getting out in the London legendary stadium.

The 25-year-old Macario is no stranger to high-stakes games or main phases. In 2021-22 she raised the UEFA Women's Champions League Trophy with Lyon and received a third Olympic medal at the Tokyo 2020 games, but has never played at Wembley because they were followed there in England against etc. due to injuries.

While Macario signed at Chelsea in the summer of 2023, her debut was delayed due to an ACL injury that required a long relaxation. Since her return, she has landed two titles for Super League (Super League) and a league cup, but has now been chasing a home of Crown Sonia Bombastor's debut season in England.

Champions Manchester United defends in the way, appears in the third FA Cup final in a row and strives to achieve a few old scores, but Chelsea will be difficult favorites. All five victories in her FA Cup came in Wembley after the women's final from the 2014-15 season has permanently moved there and has lost a final in Arsenal 2015-16 there.

“I often played the team there, even if I didn't play for Chelsea, and I heard that it is a very big occasion,” Macario told ESPN. “Every player dreams of Wembley. I think the FA Cup final just makes it more extensive.

“We are only happy to be back there, and for me personally I only try to believe that it is just another game, but I will definitely divide in all these moments: the atmosphere, the stadium and all the legends that were previously there. Hopefully we can create another piece of history.”

Chelsea will chase a historical heights, but Macario does not overwhelm the pressure of the occasion. Her focus is on staying under construction until the big day, although your premium routine does not contain reality TV -that's something that leaves her teammate Naomi Girma.

“I definitely try to switch off as much as possible,” she admits. “Obviously I do the parts I have to do to prepare myself to finish my body, but mentally it's just another day.”

If you get out on the Holy Wembley lawn, more emotions are connected to Macario than others, since your two seasons in Chelsea have been affected by injuries. Due to her ACL recovery, she was only able to make her debut for the team in March 2024, and at the end of the season she even stood with a small setback that she was excluded from the etc. Cador for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

After Macario had returned to full fitness this season, he knocked in autumn and only had the last six months so that she set up fitness, secure regular minutes and develop partnerships on the field. With two winning campaigns that have now been won in the League Cup and WSL – won the title with two games, undefeated and won with a record point (60) – the FA Cup trophy would be the “cherry at the top”.

“It was not the most smooth transition to playing because other things, after it was on the move, create different small niggles, and it is difficult to record the shape in general, especially in the season,” she adds. “Fortunately, I have the feeling that I have been on the pitch since January or so finally.

In fact, the striker admits that her game, which she has not reached since her return, has another level.

Before her injury, Macario had attracted attention for her ability to score and scored 29 goals in 46 games in her two seasons in France (she was not available for the 2022-23 season). In 18 games she only scored six league goals this season.

“I definitely learned not to be a matter of course on the field,” she adds. “On some days, it can be a bit more difficult than on other days, especially if we have so much pressure and expectation. It is not always childish enjoyment, but it is something that if these days are particularly difficult, I think I am grateful to be grateful to do the thing that I love most. I just try to hug every moment.

“We worked so hard every day. To finish it in Wembley, it would be absolutely perfect; it is what we do for.”

A deeply rooted feeling for the etc. is the desire to give something back to the club that she admits that it is her recovery. Macario's restoration took a total of 22 months. When she injured in Lyon in Lyon on June 1, 2022, she suffered her last season with the European juggernuts before she came to Chelsea until March 3, 2024.

As a rule, the players return between 10 and 12 months after the ACL operation. Some, such as Macario and her team -mate Sam Kerr (who has been out of operation for the blues for 16 months), need to return longer.

“I am Chelsea very, very grateful that I injured myself as a hurt,” she says. “I have the feeling that I owe them to be better and do it better.

“Nobody really expected my injury to take so long, but it is something that unfortunately only happens. You never know when they sign someone. But Chelsea was only enormous in all of this and was very enormous and was super supportive.

Only a few players know the former Chelsea manager Emma Hayes and the incoming bombastor better than Macario after playing among both. With Hayes as a new national team manager and the French trainer after their way from the former Club Lyon, their assessment of their boss is just right: professional, intensive and “a force you have to count on”.

It would be a remarkable achievement for a bombastor to win a domestic heights in their first season, especially after the total official of 8: 2, but Chelsea, has an insatiable appetite in the semi -finals of the Champions League.

“It is so difficult to track Emma,” says Macario. “But I think the entire team has done such a enormous job when adapting to new players.

“We are never satisfied with just winning the league and so on. We definitely want to urge more on more and in particular in Europe.

“I think it will take some time before we learn from it [the defeat to Barcelona] and consistently dominate in the first and second half of the season in the Champions League. What we want the most is to win everything. So yes, we are satisfied with the season, but definitely not satisfied. “