Defender Jennifer Beattie admits seeing her former club and 14-times winners Arsenal exit the SSE Women’s FA Cup at the quarter-final stage proves how competitive the competition has become.

Birmingham City caused the shock of the round when they disposed of Arsenal courtesy of Marisa Ewers on Sunday.

Now at Manchester City, Beattie meanwhile helped her current team-mates reach the semi-finals, battling past a resilient Bristol City side 2-1.

That allowed her to assist with Monday’s draw in the BBC Radio 5 Live studio, as her side were handed a home semi-final against Liverpool, who defeated Notts County 2-0.

Birmingham meanwhile take on Chelsea and Beattie admitted her previous side’s conquerors are ones to watch alongside her own City side.

“Birmingham have a really good squad this year, and to knock out the holders shows just how special these types of competitions can be,” she said.

“Everyone has the ability to do something special, everyone wants to win it and there is scope for shocks, all the teams want to be able to get to that final.

“Birmingham versus Chelsea is a very interesting match so we’ll have to see what happens with that one. It’s a tricky one to call particularly with the Spring Series yet to get underway.

“Not many people expected a result like that for Birmingham, but it’s happened and well done to them, they were a strong team in the FA Women’s Super League last season too.”

City have never reached the SSE Women’s FA Cup final, with a long way to go to catch up the 14 titles currently held by Arsenal.

They now face a Liverpool side looking for a chance of making history. They have also never lifted the trophy having last finished as a runner-up in 1996.

But, despite the chance to go to Wembley being tantalisingly close, Beattie insists they can’t be thinking of a trip to the home of football just yet with attentions needing to be turned toward the Reds instead.

“We drew against them twice so we know what a tough team they are,” she added.

“They had a very strong performance to get the win in the last round against Notts County so they’ll be looking forward to the game just as much as we have.

“We’ve never made it to Wembley as a team yet so it’s one we want to go all the way with, but we have to focus on Liverpool first and foremost, they can’t be underestimated.

"They're very well organised and have a lot of pace up front, have some great set-piece takers and great finishers too.

“They've scored a couple of goals against us which not many teams did last season."

Tickets are now on sale for the SSE Women’s FA Cup Final on Saturday 13th May at Wembley Stadium connected by EE. For the second consecutive year, kids go free to the final. Adult tickets cost £15 and can be purchased here: https://ticketing.thefa.com/