City hit 100 in Everton victory

Simone Magill’s own goal and Ellen White’s clinical finish put City in charge, before late goals from Alex Greenwood and Laura Coombs completed the perfect scoreline for the hosts.

The result drew Gareth Taylor’s side level on points with Manchester United to continue our march towards the Women’s Champions League places.

There was more reason to cheer at the final whistle as well, as we marked our 100th league victory since we became a professional outfit in 2014.

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WHAT HAPPENED

After a sunny day descended on Manchester, attention turned to City, who knew a win would put us level on points with our city rivals.

Crosses from City’s Demi Stokes and Everton’s Claire Emslie set the tempo for the clash, as both teams were pushing for an early goal.

It was City who posed the first real threat of the game, after a long ball forward was controlled by Caroline Weir, who laid it off to Stokes whose shot rebounded out for a corner.

From the resulting corner, the ball ended up with Lauren Hemp on the left wing, her swinging cross found White who could only steer the ball high and over the bar.

The hosts were showing signs of fatigue in the opening stages, with sloppy passes in the middle of the park making us lose momentum.

But after an even first 25 minutes at the Academy Stadium, it was a Georgia Stanway‘s set play that gave us the breakthrough.

Her corner was swung highly into the box which fortunately met the head of Magill and the ball bundled into the back of net to put us in the driving seat.

Weir nearly added to our advantage moments later, after she drove into the box and could only power her shot over the bar.

After increased added pressure, our advantage was doubled. A diagonal ball was controlled by Lucy Bronze, who swivelled past Danielle Turner and squared the ball across to White, who made no mistake with her clinical finish.

Emslie was a bright spark in the Everton camp, with her dribble and shot through the lacklustre City defence, ending up in Ellie Roebuck’s safe palms.

City continued to turn the heat up with successive corners troubling the Toffees, but none of them were capitalised on as we headed into the break with a comfortable two nil lead.

We never looked back after our slow start; we came charging out for the second half with Stanway’s low driving hit rolling into Sandy Maclver’s gloves.

Keira Walsh nearly rose the roof off the stadium, with her superb effort from far out nearly creeping in at Maclver’s right post.

City controlled the game better as it progressed, with neat passing sequences creating a lot of chances for the top three chasers.

But again, it was a corner that broke the stubborn Merseyside defence, as Hemp’s diving header across the box was stuck in by the outstretched leg of Greenwood.

City did not rest at three goals however, with the substitutes combining to add further joy to the home support.

Khiara ‘Bunny’ Shaw ran at the Everton back line before she laid it off to Laura Coombs whose thunderous shot rippled the back of the net.

After two late goals in two minutes, City ended the match superbly and made it a four star performance under the lights.

WHAT IT MEANS

A win for City means we are now level on points with Manchester United with a two goal difference being the decider between our third placed rivals and us in fourth.

With Taylor’s side having now won 32 points from our last 17 league games, we have a fine run heading into the end of the campaign.

HOW WE LINED UP

Taylor made two changes to the side that brushed aside tonight’s opponents in our last clash in the FA Women’s Cup. Filippa Angeldahl and Jess Park made way for Georgia Stanway and Haley Raso.

Ellie Roebuck remained between the sticks, with a back four of Demi Stokes, Alex Greenwood, Alanna Kennedy and Lucy Bronze protecting her.

Keira Walsh sat in front of the defence, with Stanway and Caroline Weir sitting ahead in a midfield three.

Lauren Hemp and Raso took their positions on the flanks with Ellen White leading the line.

CITY XI | Roebuck, Stokes (Blakstad 88’), Greenwood, Kennedy, Bronze, Weir, Walsh, Stanway (Coombs 78’), Hemp, White (C) (Shaw 73’), Raso (Beckie 73’)

SUBS | Keating, Park, Angeldahl, Mace

EVERTON XI | Maciver, Turner (C), Björn (Pattinson 55’), Finnigan, George, Maier, Emslie (Duggan 77’), Graham, Galli (Christiansen 56’), Magill, Bennison (Dali 77’)

SUBS | Brosnan, Gauvin, Clinton

PLAYER OF THE MATCH: LUCY BRONZE

Bronze’s performance shone bright in the match which reflected the scoreline. She topped it off with a pitch perfect assist for White which was an important goal in the match as it set the confidence in the group as the match progressed.

STATS

• Tonight marked our 100th win in the WSL since we became a professional outfit in 2014.
• We are the third team to reach the milestone, and most notably we will have done this in the record least number of games. Breaking the current record of Arsenal who reached their 100^th win in their 147th
• City have a 100% record against Everton in all competitions, with two wins in the past four days (W20 D0 L0)
• Ellen White has been directly involved in 13 goals (G7 A5) in her last 15 WSL games against Everton - only against Liverpool has she been involved in more in the competition (M15 G7 A8).
• Our England star also loves a Wednesday! She has scored in 15 of the 20 matches she’s played on the hump day.

WHAT’S NEXT

In a packed schedule, City are at the Academy Stadium again this Sunday, as we welcome Birmingham City in the FA Women’s Super League.

Kick off is scheduled for 14:00.

Tickets for all the City home games are on sale online or in person.

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