City ended 2024 with two victories and two defeats in all competitions ahead of the Barclays Women’s Super League’s winter break.
Gareth Taylor‘s side cruised past Leicester in our opening fixture, claiming a 4-0 win at the Joie Stadium before following that up with a 2-0 success over St Polten four days later.
CITY v UNITED | GET YOUR ETIHAD DERBY TICKETS
But with injuries to key players, the busy fixture period began to take its toll on the squad, with December ending with losses against Everton and Barcelona respectively.
Nonetheless, City can still be proud of our progress in 2024, with the below three players up for selection in the latest Player of the Month award below...
Khiara Keating
The Blues had to settle for second place in UEFA Women’s Champions League Group D after a 3-0 defeat in Barcelona, but that didn’t take anything away from Keating’s performance between the sticks.
Our number 35 was in inspired form, pulling off a string of incredible saves to keep City in the contest for the majority of the evening, making a remarkable 14 saves against the reigning European champions.
The week before and Keating had once again stood out for the Blues in a 2-1 defeat to Everton, making several key stops in the first half from Toni Payne and Katja Snoeijs in particular.
She also picked up a clean sheet against Leicester in our opening December fixture.
Leila Ouahabi
The Spain international looks back to her best after an early season injury and was a key figure at left-back across December.
She grabbed an assist in our 4-0 win over Leicester, floating an inviting cross in to Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw which the Jamaican powered home for our second of the afternoon.
Another impressive performance followed against St Polten with the full-back causing plenty of problems down the left, including an inch-perfect ball through to Lily Murphy, who fired just wide in the second half.
She also used all of her experience to keep international team-mate Salma Paralluelo relatively quiet in our final match of 2024 against Barcelona.
Aoba Fujino
The winger is really starting to find her feet in England and provided real energy and creativity out wide across December.
An ever-present across the month, Fujino’s real standout display came against St Polten, grabbing assists for both City goals.
Her pace and footwork was too much for the visitors to handle, with a pinpoint cross providing Murphy and Kerstin Casparij with simple finishes.
In our final two matches of 2024 Fujino’s energy once again drove City forward and, but for an incredibly tight offside call in Barcelona, she might even have added to her goalscoring tally.
