This weekend saw Manchester City take on Championship side Sunderland in the women’s league cup. It’s always interesting to see how the teams will perform when going against each other and playing in different divisions. In the end, Manchester City didn’t have too much trouble with Sunderland: 3-0.
Starting XI’s
Manchester City
Roebuck; Morgan (Stokes ’62), Houghton (c) (Kennedy ’76), Greenwood, Ouahabi (Aleixandri ’62), Hasegawa (Mace ’62), Angeldahl, Fowler, Raso, Shaw (Marley-Paraskevas ’76) Blakstad
Sunderland
Moan; Beer (Kelly ’45), Mccatty, Westrup (c), Herron, Griffiths, D.Brown, Mcinnes (J. Brown ’45), Dodds (Ede ’68), Manders (Holmes ’68), Gears
Embed from Getty ImagesHow it went
With the top spot in group B at stake, Manchester City welcomed Sunderland to the Academy Stadium. The opening moments of the game were almost completely controlled by the hosts. The 8th minute saw the deadlock broken from a Manchester City corner. As the visitors failed to clear a corner, Steph Houghton’s shot rebounded off a Sunderland player. The deflection fell to Julie Blakstad who pounced on a goalkeeping error to slot the ball neatly into the bottom corner.
More chances came for both sides, Sunderland challenged from a corner that saw the hosts struggle to clear the danger. Ultimately the first half ended with only the slimmest lead to the hosts with Blakstad’s goal the only thing separating the teams.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe goal came even earlier in the second half than the first. Just 2 minutes in, Hayley Raso doubled the host’s lead. Finding herself in yards of space, the Australian international made no mistake in passing the ball home. Despite flashes of attacks from the visitors, it was just 12 minutes until Gareth Taylor’s side added to their lead. Houghton’s pass saw Bunny Shaw with plenty of time and space. The WSL top scorer ended her 60-minute goal drought putting the Sky Blues 3 ahead.
Despite the scoreline, Sunderland never appeared out of the tie. Whilst many times would have been tempted to sit back and defend, Sunderland however kept the pressure on their opponents throughout the fixture. A late goal ruled offside saw the tie ended 3-0 to the hosts, leaving them second in group B having played a game less.
