Manchester City took on Liverpool at the Joie Stadium and signed off for the international break with a 4-0 win, leaving them two points outside the Barclays Women’s Super League top three.
Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw scored in the 30th and 43rd minute, on her first start since suffering a leg injury in December. Jill Roord hit the net in the 60th minute, before Gracie Prior marked her first WSL start for City with a 77th-minute goal.
The Blues remain fourth in the table, two points behind Arsenal in third. Liverpool are seventh.
As it happened
City had 84% possession in the opening ten minutes of the game, but took a while to test Liverpool goalkeeper Teagan Micah. Aoba Fujino was the first player to get close to a goal. Her deflected close-range effort crashed off the inside of the post, and City teammate Yui Hasegawa had a chance on goal soon after.
While City were on top, Liverpool had two big chances close together. Leanne Kiernan fired a shot into the side net after stealing the ball from Laia Aleixandri. Rebecca Knaak cleared Liverpool’s second chance, an effort from Sophie Román Haug, off the line.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter 30 minutes Shaw found City’s deserved opener with a shot in the lower right corner of Liverpool’s net. She celebrated with a Black Power salute, a poignant gesture considering she had faced racist and misogynistic abuse after City’s recent WSL match against Arsenal. She bagged her second goal just before the break, with a assist from Mary Fowler. The Australian became the first WSL player to bag two goal contributions in four consecutive games.
Embed from Getty ImagesAs the hour mark approached, Vivianne Miedema forced Micah into another save after being fed by Fujino. A third goal for City followed soon after, with Jill Roord first having a shot blocked by a Liverpool defender but burying the rebound.
Gracie Prior, on her first WSL start today, scored the final goal of the evening. She sought to cross to the far post and was looking for Laura Blindkilde Brown, only to see her shot sail over Micah into the top corner – her first senior City goal.
The lineups
MCI: Yamashita; Ouahabi, Knaak, Aleixandri, Prior; Hasegawa, Roord; Miedema, Fowler, Shaw, Fujino
LIV: Micah; Evans, Clark, Fisk; Hinds, Holland, Kerr, Höbinger, Parry; Román Haug, Kiernan
