Manchester City punched their sixth straight win in the Women’s Super League on Sunday after beating Brighton at home.
Ahead of the long awaited Manchester derby, Gareth Taylor’s side welcomed the Seagulls to the Academy stadium.
City went into the tie having won by at least by a five goal margin in their last three meetings with the south coast side.
Starting XIs
Manchester City
Roebuck; Casparij (Morgan ’61), Aleixandri, Greenwood (c), Ouahabi, Hasegawa, Coombs (Angeldahl ’45), Castellanos (Mace ’73), Kelly (Raso ’61), Shaw, Blakstad
Brighton
Walsh; Fox, Pattinson, Sarri (Bance ’85), Connolly, Lee, Zigiotti, Green, Carter, Williams, Robinson
Embed from Getty ImagesHow it went
From the off, Man City were utterly dominant. Just 11 minutes in and the hosts were ahead.
A Chloe Kelly corner saw the ball fly into the top left corner. While the goal was credited by both clubs to Kelly, replays appeared to show the ball may have come off a Brighton player before going in. Corrections issued post match gave it as a Veatriki Sarri own goal.
Barely eight minutes later and City had their second. Once again the No.9 was the catalyst.
With the England international’s shot going just wide, it was Norweigan teammate Julie Blakstad who got the final touch to pass the ball home.
Laura Coombs also got in on the first half scoring action. Her shot from just outside the box saw Taylor’s side go into the break with a healthy three-goal lead after an utterly dominant 45 minutes.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe second half brought about a completely different game.
Sloppy passing from the hosts combined with an increase in Brighton’s tempo saw several nervous moments for the home side. The pressure on the hosts continued to mount until finally the Sky Blues were broken down.
Just one minute before the final whistle, former City player Geum-Min Lee found the back of the net for Brighton. The goal came amidst a scramble in the penalty box, with both teams seemingly unaware that the ball had crossed the line for several seconds.
The attendance for the match was 1,696.
City will next play Liverpool away in the Continental Cup, before hosting local rivals Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium. Meanwhile, Brighton prepare to welcome Everton to Broadfield Stadium.
