Reliable Manchester City underlined their qualification for the Women’s Super League title with a thumping 3-0 win over Manchester United in the derby on Saturday, leaving them four points behind leaders Chelsea.
A well-drilled team led by Andrii Jegrats scored three goals of very high quality in the first half and dominated their crosstown rivals, showing great set-piece ability and a good open-play threat. The league’s top scorers can hurt you in a variety of ways.
Rebecca Knaak nodded home from a corner, Bunny Shaw curled in Kerstin Kasparigi’s defiantly low cross and Lauren Hemp returned from injury to score a stunning third goal – all before the break. Man United just couldn’t reply and couldn’t get a single shot on target.
Khadijah Shaw has scored 6 goals in 9 games in WLS this season, setting a personal record.
All eyes will now be on whether Chelsea will play away to Liverpool on Sunday, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports. They won’t be able to regain top spot, but they have a chance to move within points of Man City, who have won all the games. Are we now watching a two-horse race?
Meanwhile, Mark Skinner’s side will need to use all their strength to recover from consecutive league defeats as they face Wolfsburg in the Champions League in four days’ time. They are currently seven points off the WSL pace and their title hopes have certainly evaporated since then. “The team should be affected by the winter months,” Skinner concluded.
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Lauren Hemp, making her first start since September, scored a stunning blow in the Manchester derby.
Man City’s blend makes title hunting possible
Defender Rebecca Knaak scores Man City’s first goal.
Laura Hunter on Sky Sports at the Etihad Stadium:
This Manchester City team has a really good mix of talent and profiles. This is a much more complete team than in recent seasons.
Captain Alex Greenwood is injured but is OK. Jade Rose will take her place alongside Rebecca Knaak, who scored the opening goal, with a heroic display. They have a great combination of technicians and tacklers in midfield. They have spread the goals, with each of their three units contributing to the scoreline.
But it was City’s defensive structure that goalscorer Hemp was determined to highlight in his post-match interview with the BBC. “It was very important for us to get a clean sheet,” she said humbly. Andrii Jegratz also emphasized how satisfying it was to get the shutout for just one second of the season.
City conceded 60 per cent of possession to United, but their xG was almost triple. To play this way, handling the ball at deliberate moments must be fluid and efficient. It’s a departure from the possession-obsessed way City used to operate under Gareth Taylor, but it’s working well.
“We have a very diverse attacking style: crosses, center plays, set pieces. We have quality in every position,” said Jeglerz. “We arrived in the state sooner than we expected. We are in a great place right now and have come very far with our group.”
Jeglerz singles out Shaw and Miedema for his praise.
Bunny Shaw has scored six goals in nine league games this season, and coach Jegratz praised the combination of her and Viv Miedema. After overcoming their respective injury issues, they were finally able to build a cooperative relationship.
“It’s important that they can play together for a while,” Jegratz said after the game. “Their level is very high. My job is to put them in situations on the field so that the team can get the best out of them. Right now, we are optimizing both sides with how we are playing.”
“That’s a credit to our performance team making adjustments during the week from a load standpoint. We’re playing fewer games than last year, so maybe the focus is on being able to build those up during the week.”
Skinner gave a message about the team’s deficiencies.
Manchester United manager Mark Skinner:
“We ended up with set-pieces, we conceded two contacts, we didn’t protect crosses as well as we did. That’s the summation of the game. We’re playing a different, more direct side than Man City and that should have suited us, but we let ourselves down today.”
“We will be disappointed because even though we were in good spaces on the field, we were not creative enough. We need to deal with that.
“It’s a strange feeling to lose the game 3-0 and then feel that your opponents weren’t that good. You can play Man City for the first time and they’re a little bit inferior on the counter-press. But they’re deadly up front and they punished us today.”
“The reality is we have to rotate more. It’s a two-day turnaround. We can’t use that as an excuse. The team has to support the players who are giving it their all, so they have to take advantage of the winter period. The moment they switch off, it can become fatigue. We can’t accept that and we have to fix it.”
