The midfielder found the net from distance with a venomous effort just after the half hour, which was enough to see City into the last four of the Continental Cup.
And while the visitors weren’t able to build on that lead, a ninth win and third clean sheet in succession provided the perfect preparation for a huge FA Cup encounter with Arsenal on Sunday.
Hasegawa is sure to play an important role at the weekend, and Taylor was quick to praise her goal and performance at Brisbane Road.
“Her goal is top,” the boss said of Hasegawa after the win.
“She had a couple of sighters before then, but I thought her first half performance, even her second half.
“She’s so important for us and she allows us to play the way we play massively.
“Without the ball, I made a real point of singling her out at half-time. She’s playing against players way bigger, way heavier, way stronger but she’s just incredible in how she looks after the ball and puts her body in the way, assesses the flight of the ball.
“She is such a bright player. I thought she was immense tonight.”
Unbeaten since November, City are hitting our stride at a crucial point in the campaign.
And while the boss felt there were things the team can work on following our latest win at Brisbane Road, he was pleased with how the team saw out the victory against a tenacious opponent.
Taylor added: “I think we can play better for sure. I think there were some good spells in the second period where we started to settle down and play our game a little bit more.
“We were a little bit wasteful in possession in the first half and every time we forced passes we didn’t really work the process a little bit enough.
“We gave them little sniffs, but I thought we were really solid.
“With Khiara [Keating] at the back, with the two centre-backs as well Alanna [Kennedy] stepped in to be fair and hasn’t played any minutes for a long time but she gave a good level of performance and Laia of course is such a good player she can play in any position.
“I’m just pleased to be through, it’s a difficult place to come here [Brisbane Road].
“It’s a long journey for us, the first of three London games for us, so have to be really pleased to be in the semi-finals.”
