Two-goal Fowler steers Man City into League Cup final

Mary Fowler must be the scourge of every Arsenal fan and player right now, including her Matildas teammates, and for good reason.

Only days after scoring twice against the Gunners in the Women's Super League, the 21-year-old rising star of women's football grabbed a late brace to lift City into the English League Cup final on Thursday.

Fowler scored in the 26th minute and in time added on to break the hearts of the Gunners, who had levelled matters earlier through Mariona Caldentey in the 58th minute.

With the game in the balance, the Cairns-born prodigy scored in the 95th minute to dump Arsenal and her Matildas teammates Steph Catley, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Cailin Foord out of the Cup.

City will now meet Chelsea in the final on March 15.

Meanwhile, City forward Khadija "Bunny" Shaw didn't travel with the team for the clash after being subjected to "racist and misogynistic" abuse on social media over the weekend.

City did not give a reason for the Jamaica international's absence, but head coach Gareth Taylor said Shaw had been impacted by the abuse.

"When you are affected by things like that it's really, really difficult," he told Sky Sports after Thursday's match.

"I've not really had time to have a good conversation with her about it, but she knows and she needs to know that the whole team and the whole club are behind her on this."

Shaw, one of the top women's soccer players in the world, was targeted after a Women's Super League game Sunday against Arsenal, which City described as "disgusting treatment."

City did not expand on the content of the messages but said they had been forwarded to authorities.

"Discrimination of any kind, either in stadiums or online, will not be tolerated and has absolutely no place inside or outside the game," City said in a statement Wednesday.

"Bunny has decided not to share the messages publicly so as not to give the oxygen of publicity to the vile individuals who sent them."