Janine Beckie and Pauline Bremer rose to the challenge of leading the line for Manchester City in the absence of the injured England trio Ellen White, Georgia Stanway and Lauren Hemp. Beckie’s hat-trick and a goal from the substitute Bremer ensured Nick Cushing’s team swept past Swiss side Lugano 11-1 on aggregate and into the Champions League round of 16.
“It’s great to be able to contribute,” said Beckie. “Those three are a huge loss for us as a team, but Pauline’s been on fire, she is a raw goalscorer, Caroline Weir has been our best player so far this season and it’s nice to be in that group of players, I’m a striker, it’s good to score goals. And it’s great to make Nick’s job harder.”
It was always going to be routine for City with a six-goal cushion, courtesy of their 7-1 defeat of the Swiss side on the road, and with ‘Janine, Janine’ ringing round the ground to the tune of Blondie’s ‘Denis’, the 949 fans made sure they would enjoy progressing further than they did last year, when they went out to unseeded Atlético Madrid.
“I’m really pleased,” said Cushing, when asked of Bremer and Beckie’s goals. “In previous years we’ve assembled a squad where we’ve known our XI and had maybe seven or eight players we can call upon in some games.
“Last year and this year we’ve assembled a squad where we’ve got consistency across the board.”
It took just five minutes for City to dash any meagre hopes of a comeback, Keira Walsh threading a pass to Beckie who dinked it smoothly over Morgan Bertsch from just inside the box. After the half-hour City doubled their lead. Cushing gave chances to the Ireland youngster Tyler Toland and the 17-year-old Jess Park, who both impressed, but it was the more experienced Walsh and Beckie partnership that would give the manager the option of resting a few more legs. Walsh broke to the byline before slipping a cross across the face of goal for Beckie to poke in.
Cushing was full of praise for Walsh: “I will not hold back, she is up there with the most intelligent players I have worked with. She is pivotal for us.”
This was much more comfortable for City. The Nationalliga A runners-up Lugano have become an unlikely home for former US college players. They have 16 Americans in their ranks and 10 were in the starting line up to face City, with English defender Helen Seed the outlier (she too, though, played NCAA football).
Former NWSL player Beckie was the difference for City, and just two minutes after the break she had her third. A weak attempt at a clearance fell kindly at Beckie’s feet and the Canadian turned and powered a shot high past Bertsch. Bremer added a fourth, and her seventh in all competitions, when she carried the ball from deep, rounded Bertsch and prodded towards goal as she slipped to the ground.
