It’s been a perfect week as far as Manchester City are concerned. After beating the UEFA Women’s Champions League holders Barcelona in midweek, they continued their unbeaten start to the 2024/25 Barclays Women’s Super League with a win at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Despite the Reds’ best efforts to disrupt the narrative, with September Player of the Month Olivia Smith firing the hosts into a lead before half-time through a long range dazzler, the Cityzens proved they had too much firepower in the end, sealing a comeback victory via a second-half double by Khadija Shaw.
It was the visitors’ fifth successive victory in all competitions, as three points took them to the summit of the league table with one fewer game played than Chelsea. In the process, the hammer blow saw Matt Beard – who was absent through illness – and his side have their unbeaten start harshly taken away from them.
Three years into the second Beard project and it’s still very much a work in progress at Liverpool. Though they line up in the forward line with two of their record transfers, they still operate with a far inferior budget to the traditional big four, and they continue to outperform the sum of their parts. This was the feeling at Anfield over the weekend as the Reds failed to hold onto the lead and clinch a monumental achievement themselves by picking up a first win at their main stadium.
Embed from Getty ImagesAs it happened
Despite all the challenges that a Gareth Taylor side poses, alongside the jittery fact that the Reds had never won at Anfield in four attempts, there was a quiet sense of confidence around English football’s famous four walls.
Of course, the news that manager Matt Beard was absent through illness somewhat wounded the excitement ahead of a devilish date with last season’s runners-up, but Amber Whiteley and Scott Rogers’ side were good value in the early exchanges.
Such is the pass-to-death mentality that Gareth Taylor likes to set his team up with, the Reds played the role of spectator to much of the early moments. But with Jenna Clark alive to Lauren Hemp’s barrelling runs beyond the defensive line and Gemma Bonner thwarting Khadija Shaw’s efforts to hold up play in the centre, it was the home side that carved out the first meaningful opportunity of the game on the break.
Marie Höbinger executed a wonderful lobbed ball over the City backline in the 10th minute. With the club’s September Player of the Month, Olivia Smith, facing two defenders, she did miraculously well to bypass both before stumbling at the end – her shot easily dealt with by Yamashita, who was quick off her line.
Embed from Getty ImagesThis was a sequence of play that encapsulated a lot of the first 25 minutes of the muted affair. Liverpool proved defensively astute last term, and that glaring positive from Beard’s second project made a welcome return on Sunday. Proving difficult to break down, they moved the ball fast and with intent when on the counterattack, using Höbinger as their primary muse for chances at the other end of the pitch.
It was the Austrian international, again, who did well to open up the window of opportunity when she planted a deep free-kick onto the head of Sophie Roman Haug. Failing to keep her looping header down, though, City quickly saw a chance of their own, with Shaw showing off some acrobatics inside the six-yard to the same looping – and off-target – effect as her opposite number.
Hemp then brought it upon herself to produce her side’s moment of the first-half when she found the wriggle room to dance between several defenders on her way into the box. With just Laws to beat, her poked effort was just wide of the left post. And while the foray forward helped the Cityzens gain more rhythm, it would be the hosts that would take a 1-0 lead into halftime against the run of play.
In the 41st minute, Smith confirmed her status as a fan favourite on Merseyside. With her second WSL goal of the campaign, there won’t be many more memorable than her first at Anfield. She had no right to get her shot off from 25 yards, but following a defensive lapse, the 20-year-old showed that she lives by the rule that ‘if you don’t buy a ticket, you won’t win the raffle’, as she piledrived a finish into the bottom left corner.
Embed from Getty ImagesFor the makeshift Liverpool managers, the halftime message would have been rather simple: more of the same. Yet, what awaited the Kop following a 15-minute interlude was very much better than what they had played witness to up until that point. Instead of soaking up the pressure, the Reds found another gear to bring the game to their hosts.
Inside the opening 10 minutes of the restart, Höbinger had two opportunities to pump the ball into the box from a corner, with the latter almost seeing Roman Haug divert it into the bottom left corner. Shortly after, Taylor Hinds then stormed forward from the centre-circle before hitting the side netting.
Bizarrely, the Cityzens looked bewildered by what they had come up against. However, with the firepower in their ranks, it was only a matter of time before they made a chance count themselves. Hemp’s ball into the box just before the hour-mark found Shaw’s towering header, and regular viewers of the WSL need very few clues to know what happened next.
Laws struggled to get to the ball in time, and the visitors restored parity as Shaw’s floating goal seemed to take forever to hit the back of the net. The equaliser opened the pitch up for more drama as Hemp almost turned from provider to scorer quickly after, with her curling shot just missing the right corner.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Reds, on the back pedal suddenly, were forced to retreat as they had initially set up to do at the start of the afternoon. This time, though, the tactic felt a little more precarious, and a second goal from their guests had an air of inevitability about it.
With Smith coming off at the break as a precaution, the out-ball and intent to attack when given the chance waned slightly. The worrying feeling that a City goal was near almost reached its climax in the 83rd minute.
Shaw rounded the goalkeeper, and with eyes on the prize, it seemed all the Jamaican needed to do was get her shot on target to grab her second goal. But with a flurry of Reds’ defenders tracking back, they were quick to snuff out the danger and keep the ball out in a last-ditch attempt to keep City at arms’ length.
Jill Roord then blazed her shot over, before a mix-up from a corner saw Laia Aleixandri fire her effort wide of the mark to the chorus of an expectant away following. Soon enough, expectation turned into reality, with Shaw getting her second of the afternoon.
The 27-year-old found the winner in the 92nd minute. Rubbing shoulders with Niamh Fahey, the City striker proved too strong, outmuscling the Liverpool defender before unleashing a fierce strike into the roof of the net.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt condemned the Reds to a first league defeat of the season following a performance that was worthy of so much more. They defended excellently and moved the ball with pace and purpose – but, in the end, the loss highlighted just how far the Anfield outfit had before they can be spoken about in the same breath as their opponents, who rightly emerge as serious title contenders for a successive season.
The lineups
LIV: Laws; Clark, Bonner, Matthews; Hinds, Kapocs, Nagano, Hobinger, Parry; Roman Haug, Smith
MCI: Yamashita; Casparij, Aleixandri, Greenwood, Ouahabi; Park, Hasegawa, Roord; Fowler, Shaw, Hemp