Match report
That’s your lot for this one. A terrific season for City, closed out with an efficient and comfortable 2-0 win over their nearest rivals and defending champions. Cheers for reading, and we should have a report for you shortly.
Cheers for reading!
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15 games, 13 wins, two draws, 35 scored and three goals conceded. Not bad at all.
City thoroughly deserving WSL champions. Not just about money, but investment. Invested time and promoted their women's team off the pitch.
— Tim Stillman (@Stillberto) September 25, 2016
MANCHESTER CITY ARE CHAMPIONS!
They win 2-0, and take the Women’s Super League One title, their first ever.
90 mins +4: Duggan on the touchline is basically pleading with the ref to blow up now. Not long...
90 mins + 2: A last, time-wasting change for City - Keira Walsh, the excellent screening midfielder, is replaced by Daphne Corboz.
90 mins: City taking the ball into the corner. Four minutes of added time, but everyone knows how this is going to end now.
88 mins: Christiansen drills the cross over but it’s eventually cleared. City nonetheless closing this one out with relative ease.
87 mins: Houghton lines up a free-kick from about 25 yards out, just to the right, but her effort flicks off the wall and goes behind for a corner.
86 mins: Not bad at all.
Record crowd at the Academy Stadium, 4,096. Very impressive support today. #FAWSL
— Women's Soccer Zone (@Wosozone) September 25, 2016
84 mins: Glorious chance for City, as sub Asllani finds herself in absolute arces in the box, but she skews her shot just wide of the post. Bad miss, that.
83 mins: Duggan goes off (not limping excessively, but probably best to be safe) and is replaced by Tessell Middag.
82 mins: Chelsea have a free-kick deep on the right, it’s swung over but loops beyond everyone, then about four players collide with each other and end up in a heap in the box.
80 mins: Final change for Chelsea - Ji is off, and Drew Spence is on.
79 mins: Duggan goes down in some pain after a tough block tackle with Fahey. Looks like she might have jarred her knee or similar. She’s trying to play on but doesn’t look happy.
77 mins: Borges tries a first-time effort from the edge of the area that is skewed and looped so much it doesn’t reach the goalline. It’s been that sort of afternoon for Chelsea.
76 mins: Chelsea are still plugging away. Davison gets down the right and puts a low cross into the middle, but it’s easily cleared.
73 mins: Chelsea’s first decent chance for a while - England gets involved straight away, and finds some space on the edge of the box, but her shot is straight at Bardsley.
72 mins: And that’s the last action for Parris - she’s replaced by Kosovare Asllani.
71 mins: Fantastic reverse pass by Parris - probably the best player on show so far - finds Christiansen in the box, but she stretches and can’t quite wrap her foot around the shot enough to direct it towards goal.
70 mins: Another change for Chelsea - Beth England replaces Eni Aluko.
69 mins: Nice one-two from Scott that sets up a shooting chance, which she takes but skews it well wide.
67 mins: Aluko tries...well, I’m not really sure what that was. She cuts in from the left and propels the ball along the floor, through the defence and to the goalkeeper. If it was a pass there was no Chelsea player within about ten yards of it, and if it was a shot it would have barely made it to the line if left alone. Make your own mind up on that one.
65 mins: Borges takes out Parris, too quick for the Chelsea sub, and gets a booking. Odd as it sounds, just eight minutes after Borges came on, but that was coming.
64 mins: Borges fouls Parris. Chelsea manager Hayes caught on microphones declaring “oh just eff off.” Always enjoyable to hear a swear on television.
62 mins: Carney puts a corner over from the right, but Bardsley comes out and brilliantly claims the cross. The sort of ball she had to be absolutely sure of getting, and she managed to.
60 mins: Parris goes close again, but Borges is there to get back and just nicks it away from her, with the help of a sliding Chapman’s toe.
58 mins: Carney flicks a cross over into the middle, but it’s not especially well-directed and Houghton heads away fairly easily at the back post.
57 mins: First change for Chelsea: Portuguese midfielder/forward Ana Borges comes on for Blundell.
56 mins: Davison tries to run through the City defence - literally, she appeared to be attempting a run straight through the middle of Stokes’s body, but surprisingly enough it didn’t work.
54 mins: Inches away from a third for City - Parris cuts in from the right, the Chelsea defence rather obligingly stand off her but the shot is dragged just wide.
53 mins: Worth remembering that City have conceded three goals in the previous 14 games of the season. As long as they avoid letting in that number again in the next 37 minutes, they’re golden.
51 mins: Chelsea try to chip away at City’s lead, but Carney’s cross from the right drifts beyond any of its targets. Substitutions ahoy from Emma Hayes.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 Chelsea (Duggan 50)
She sidefoots down the middle and the title is surely City’s now!
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PENALTY TO CITY
Careless challenge from Flaherty, taking out Bronze on the right side of the box.
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48 mins: City go close to doubling the lead. A great pass out of defence by Houghton finds Parris on the right side of the area, she drives inside and tries...well, it might have been a shot, might have been a cross. It was definitely wide, though.
46 mins: Chelsea get things underway. But City go on the attack, firstly through Bronze on the right then Scott in the area, but her fired cross is just too spicy for Duggan, and it bounces over her shoulder.
The players are back out for the second half. Chelsea need at least two goals in the second 45 to prevent City from winning the title.
So, City only need a point but they’re on course for three of ‘em at the moment. They haven’t been especially outstanding, but they’re currently doing just enough to win the game, which will be more than enough to win the league.
Half-time: Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
45 mins + 1: A cross drops to Aluko on the left side of the area, but she tries a monumentally ambitious volley, which is sliced high and wide. And that’ll be that for the half.
45 mins: One minute of time to be added on. Aluko goes in hard and fair on Bronze.
43 mins: Davison drifts a crossfield ball to Ji on the right side of the area, the Korean chests the ball down but can’t create enough space to get a shot or cross in.
41 mins: Duggan, ankle now seemingly a little better, cuts in from the left and tries a shot from way downtown, but she skews it quite badly and it sails out, high, wide, over, done, no good.
39 mins: More spicy challenges, and it looks like Duggan has hurst herself flying into a late one on Jade Bailey. She seemed to do her ankle a mischief in that one, but she was lucky not to concede a free-kick.
36 mins: Seems to be some dispute as to whether Jill Scott did actually get the final touch on that one. You’d imagine nobody will be gettin’ in the way of her, though.
34 mins: Another corner from Duggan finds Scott at the near post, her header is deflected wide and they have a third corner. That one again finds Scott, again at the near post, but this time she glances it across goal and it sneaks into the far corner. City move closer to their first league title.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea (Scott 34)
City take the lead!
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33 mins: Still City can’t quite carve anything of substance out. Parris wins a corner on the right, which Duggan plays short back to Parris, but her second cross is blocked behind for another corner.
31 mins: Vinny Kompany is in the stands today. If you’ll excuse a moment of shameless promotion, here’s Danny Taylor’s piece on the City men’s captain from today’s Observer:
29 mins: Meanwhile - “customers”:
Instruction to #WHUSOU stewards: "Persistent standing will be discouraged & in the 1st instance steward will ask customers to be seated' 1/2
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) September 25, 2016
27 mins: And as if to emphasise the point, Christiansen gets a booking of her own for a cynical trip on Davison as the Chelsea forward powered ahead.
26 mins: Chapman goes into the book for a challenge on Jill Scott that involved a foot, a knee and at least one forearm. These two teams aren’t especially big fans of each other.
25 mins: Nikita Parris gets the ball out on the right, tries to whip a cross into the box but it goes straight to the keeper.
24 mins: City struggling to really get anything going at the moment. They seem quite tentative, like a team who knows a draw is enough and are a little frightened to lose.
22 mins: Davison feeds Carney on the edge of the box, and she tries an ambitious scooped pass over the defence, but it’s headed clear before it reaches the intended target.
20 mins: Carney tries another shot from near the edge of the box, but no luck with that one either and it goes over. Chelsea the better team at the moment.
19 mins: Chelsea build fairly slowly, and Aluko tries to get past Houghton. Good luck with that one though, and the England skipper gently relieves her international teammate of the ball.
16 mins: Chelsea’s first effort on target, as Chapman shoots from just outside the box, but she didn’t get hold of it properly and Bardsley makes a relatively simple save. The game hasn’t really found any sort of rhythm just yet.
13 mins: Stokes chases something of a lost cause and mugs Blundell on the byline, but her cut back cross into the box finds nobody, and Chelsea get the ball clear.
10 mins: First big chance of the game for City: Duggan drives down the left, cuts back in on her right foot and skims a ripping cross into the box, right onto Ross’s head, but she can only guide the effort at Chelsea keeper Spencer.
7 mins: Chelsea have been the better side so far. Ji tries to spread the play left from the middle, but Bright was carelessly offside.
5 mins: A quiet couple of minutes as the game settles down a little. Chelsea try to bring the ball out of defence but the City front three are pressing them very high.
3 mins: Aluko chases Bronze most of the way down the City right, but when she catches up all she can do is tread on the England right-back’s Achilles, and a free-kick is conceded.
2 mins: A quick look at the replay suggests it was a shoulder-to-shoulder thing between Carney and City left-back Demi Stokes. No pen.
1 min: And we’re away, Manchester City kicking off. Fahey tries to build an attack by passing the ball out of defence for Chelsea. Bright crosses over from the left and Carney goes for the header, but she goes down in the box, claiming a penalty. But no dice there. Spicy first minute.
A minute’s silence before the game for Sylvia Gore, women’s football pioneer who died earlier this month. Here’s Carrie Dunn’s obituary of her:
The players are in the tunnel. As a small aside, one of the linos today seems to be Sian Massey.
Hayes neatly sidesteps pointing out the obvious here.
'Not wanting to state the obvious, but only three points will do,' Emma Hayes told BT Sport before the game #CLFC
— Chelsea Ladies FC (@ChelseaLFC) September 25, 2016
A Chelsea win today would probably only delay the inevitable: City could still bag the title with a win over Birmingham, a game which due to the vagaries of the schedule, won’t take place for another month. So they would most likely just want to get things well and truly out of the way.
But even if they can’t actually stop them from winning the league, they might have some degree of revenge in mind: back in 2014, Chelsea went into the last day knowing a win and probably a draw against City would seal the title. However, an under-strength City managed to pull a 2-1 win out of the bag and Liverpool, who started the day in third place, nicked the title.
Teams
Manchester City Women
Bardsley; Bronze, Houghton, Beattie, Stokes; Walsh, Christiansen, Scott; Parris, Ross, Duggan. Subs: Hourihan, Maddig, Asllani, Corboz.
Chelsea Ladies
Spencer, Blundell, Bright, Flaherty, Fahey, Davison, Carney, Aluko, Ji, Chapman, Bailey. Subs: Lindahl, Kirby, England, Borges, Spence, Rafferty.
While we’re waiting for the teams, have a read of Louise Taylor’s chat with Steph Houghton, from today’s Observer:
Not that City will be remotely content to settle for the draw they need. “The mentality at this club is always to win,” says Houghton before issuing a reminder of the City Women’s mantra. “At the start of the season, we set out to claim three points from every game and to be competitive, playing the football we love to play. “We’re a club with ambition. We’ve brought in a lot of talent, but we’ve also grown our own and over the last three years it’s been so pleasing to see how we’ve progressed. Any success we have will be deserved. We’re the model everyone else wants to follow.”
Preamble
Last season, the Women’s Super League season went down to the last day. Like this term, Chelsea and Manchester City were the top two, and thanks to a 4-0 win over Sunderland it was the former that took the title, the second leg of a double for Emma Hayes and her side. This season looks like it will be rather less dramatic, largely because City are a full seven points ahead of Chelsea, and just a single, measly, lonely point will do for them, to take the title with a game to spare.
And there’s something wrong with the universe if they don’t win it, too. City are unbeaten in their 14 games thus far, have only drawn twice and have conceded just three goals. The last time they let a goal in was at the start of August, and you know things are going well when you can fit the names of the players who have scored against you on the back of a matchbox. Since you ask, the lucky three are Lauren Bruton (Reading), Jess Clarke (Notts County, a penalty in a 5-1 defeat) and Rosie White (Liverpool). You can’t get much more dominant than that.
Of course you’d expect a team with the financial backing of City to do rather well, as with the men’s team, but this is still a significant achievement for a team that have only been in the top flight for three seasons. “It would mean everything to win our first Super League trophy but we have to actually go out and do it,” England skipper Steph Houghton told Louise Taylor this week. “Games don’t come much bigger than playing the title holders with the chance to win the trophy yourselves.”
Kick-off: 14.00 BST
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