Manchester Metropolis maintained their 100% begin within the Girls’s Champions League group stage as second-half objectives from children Laura Blindkilde Brown and Aoba Fujino had been sufficient to beat a decided Hammarby aspect.
The English top-flight leaders carried out beneath the excessive requirements they’ve set to date this season however could have been glad to get the job accomplished nonetheless, on an evening after they had been with out the inventive affect of the in-form England winger Lauren Hemp. The dogged resistance of the guests was ultimately overcome by the intelligent passing of the hosts, who stayed high of their group and are properly on target for a spot within the quarter-finals.
If any Metropolis followers had assumed this may be a walkover, having seen that Hammarby had been trounced 9-0 of their earlier away sport on this group when up in opposition to the defending champions, Barcelona, they had been quickly proved improper because the guests’ defence put up a considerably stronger resistance. The Metropolis head coach, Gareth Taylor had, on Monday, described that 9-0 scoreline as “deceptive”, warning his group to not be complacent. That hefty deficit had clearly not deterred the Swedish group’s die-hard travelling supporters, whose partisan contribution supplied a soundtrack that was comparatively distinctive within the context of the Girls’s Champions League, the place away followings can usually be minimal.
Slightly below 400 Hammarby followers had spent the afternoon singing proudly in Manchester metropolis centre and so they carried their tifo, inexperienced and white scarves and a constantly-banging drum to the Joie Stadium, the place they by no means as soon as let up the noise. Their chanting was ever-present within the chilly November air, no matter the truth that the house group had been controlling virtually the entire possession, and so they virtually went into overdrive when their Japan midfielder Asato Miyagawa hooked a shot narrowly over the crossbar shortly earlier than half-time. That will have been decidedly in opposition to the run of play, although, after a gap interval which had seen Taylor’s aspect dominate the territory and the probabilities.
The Jamaica striker Khadija Shaw and the Australia ahead Mary Fowler had each gone shut for the hosts, who had been themselves victorious over Barcelona of their group opener however had been actually not fairly as spectacular as they had been when disposing of the Catalan giants. Hammarby, who began the Norway and former Metropolis winger Julie Blakstad in opposition to her former membership, had eradicated Benfica in qualifying and had been demonstrating their excessive work price as soon as once more.
It took fewer than 90 seconds for Metropolis to lastly break the impasse after the half-time break, nevertheless, because the England youth worldwide Blindkilde Brown scored her first Champions League aim, and solely her second aim for Metropolis since her January arrival from Aston Villa. The 21-year-old supplied the neat, close-range end to a transfer which had supplied the right demonstration of Metropolis’s slick first-time passing. The hosts switched the ball from proper to left, with Jess Park, Fujino and Yui Hasegawa all concerned earlier than Fowler lower the ball again straight into Blindkilde Brown’s path, and her teammates had been visibly delighted for her to grow to be a goalscorer in Europe.
Sandwiched in between the match and subsequent Thursday’s reverse fixture in Sweden, Taylor’s group face a box-office conflict with the defending Girls’s Tremendous League champions, Chelsea, as second hosts first within the WSL on Saturday. With that proverbial six-pointer wanting on the horizon, maybe it was inevitable that Metropolis wouldn’t play at 100% depth in opposition to Hammarby.
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Taylor made a flurry of late substitutes, certainly with greater than half an eye fixed on that assembly with the Frenchwoman Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea aspect.
But they remained purposeful in assault and added a second when the Japan playmaker Fujino met Leila Ouahabi’s left-wing cross. The 20-year-old Fujino had earlier struck the submit however refused to be denied as she ultimately discovered her second aim of the season since signing for Metropolis this summer season. The outcome ensured {that a} victory in Sweden subsequent week would assure Taylor’s aspect a spot within the knockout phases, and nonetheless with video games to spare.
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