City make it six in a row with late win over Liverpool

After a goalless first half, the hosts opened the scoring through Cornelia Kapocs’ close-range header six minutes after the break, but Iman Beney made it two in two when equalising shortly after.

The Blues then pushed for a winner and found it with stoppage time looming when Aoba Fujino slammed low into the net after receiving a precise Sydney Lohmann pass.

Andrée Jeglertz’s side were full value for a win that moves us back up to second in the Barclays Women’s Super League table, with our ability to respond in the face of adversity on show once again.

WHAT HAPPENED 

City arrived at Anfield in the hunt of a sixth straight win and were the better side in the early exchanges as Vivianne Miedema was twice denied by Rafaela Borggrafe.

Although Jeglertz’s side were dominating, but we couldn’t find the opener and before an unfortunate injury to the hosts’ Marie Hobinger brought a halt to proceedings.

But City were back on top soon after, as Miedema slipped Aoba Fujino into the area but her attempt was met by a smart Borggrafe stop.

City started the second half brightly with Leila Ouahabi firing over the bar from the edge of the area, but it was Liverpool who broke the deadlock six minutes after the interval.

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An inviting ball into the area by Ceri Holland was met by Kapocs at the far post, who headed home from close-range.

Undeterred, the visitors found an equaliser 10 minutes later through the lively Beney, one week on from her heroics in our 3-2 win over Arsenal.

Bunny Shaw’s header looked to be falling just wide of the target but Borggrafe inadvertently parried the ball into the path of the Swiss international who slammed into the roof of the net from a tight angle.

And with City in pursuit of a winner, we finally got our noses in front with four to play.

Substitute Sydney Lohmann was the architect, picking up play off Kerstin Casparij and feeding the ball to Fujino, who fired through Borggrafe’s net to seal all three points in front of the travelling fans.

There was a late scare deep into stoppage time though when former Blue Gemma Bonner scored on the rebound from a Liverpool free-kick, but the offside flag was rightly raised to preserve a precious win on Merseyside.

DROPPING IN 

Throughout the contest at Anfield, City were utilising the 3-4-3 formation seen throughout Jerglertz tenure so far.

But Miedema would often drift in from the left and find space in the pocket below Bunny which gave us an outlet to create chances.

Another example of the fluid system the Swede has us playing.

The late show 

After recovering from two Arsenal equalisers in our 3-2 win over the Gunners ahead of the trip to Anfield, our mental resolve was tested again by going a goal down to Liverpool.

But, City responded brilliantly to level and then find a winner to seal a fifth WSL win in a row.

Our Head Coach has spoken about winning in different ways, and the visitors had to dig deep for this one.

BRILLIANT BENEY 

Following on from her euphoric match winner against Arsenal, Beney was once again a standout performer for City.

Tough tackles, silky runs and her poacher’s instinct were all on show on Merseyside following her summer arrival.

At just 19, the sky is the limit for the Swiss ace.

HOW WE LINED UP

City XI: Yamashita, Casparij, Rose, Greenwood, Beney, Blindkilde Brown (Lohmann 82’), Hasegawa, Ouahabi (Layzell 90’+4’), Fujino, Miedema (Coombs 61’), Shaw.

Unused substitutes: Keating, Wienroither, Prior, Thomas, Oldroyd, Shikhshabekova.

Liverpool XI: Borggrafe, Fisk (C), Bonner, Clark, Evans, Nagano, Hobinger (MacLean 26’), Kerr (Roman Haug 90’+3’) Holland, Enderby, Kapocs.

Unused substitutes: Kirby, Shimizu, Szymczak, Olsson, Lundgaard, Silcock.

WHAT IT MEANS 

The win at Anfield means City have moved to second in the WSL table on 15 points after  six games.

		Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Form
1		Manchester City Man City	9	8	0	1	23	9	14	24
2		Chelsea Chelsea	9	6	3	0	16	5	11	21
3		Manchester United Man United	9	5	2	2	19	9	10	17

UP NEXT

City’s final match before October’s international break is a Subway Women’s League Cup trip to Newcastle.

Kick-off in the north east is scheduled for 14:00 (UK) on Sunday 19 October.

Next Fixture

All fixtures

Sun 19 Oct

FA Women's League Cup

Newcastle

14:00

BST

Man City