Women’s Super League action returned to the Academy Stadium with Brighton the visitors for a goal-scoring masterclass from Manchester City’s Chloe Kelly, Julie Blakstad and Laura Coombs in their eighth unbeaten game of the season, in all competitions.
Gareth Taylor’s side played with a patient pass-and-move style that paid dividends as they made Brighton chase the ball for the majority of the game. The win looked almost certain within 26 minutes when Laura Coombs’ fireball shot from the edge of the box gave the Sky Blues a 3-goal lead until Lee Geum-min gave the visitors their consolation goal in the dying seconds of the game.
Chloe Kelly had broken the deadlock as she netted her first of the WSL season from a perfectly placed corner kick, that was tucked inside the front post early on. It was only 11 minutes into the game when the hosts opened the scoring with some attributing it to a Veatriki Sarri own-goal and seven minutes later Julie Blakstad doubled City’s lead from a diving header to redirect Kelly’s ball in.
The hosts didn’t go unchallenged but quickly regained composure when challenged deep in their defensive third by resorting to keep-ball around the orange shirts to get themselves out of hot water. When Brighton were on the attack and had the potential to take the lead, Katie Robinson was shrugged off the ball by Alex Greenwood as she was through on goal.
Robinson was the visitor's biggest threat and worked hard throughout the second half but it was Lee who scored Brighton's consolation in the final minute of play as her shot rolled over the line with seconds to the final whistle.
It came to the crowd's bemusement after the visitors looked beaten and fed up with ball chasing so often their heads dropped when they were out of possession while City’s tempo never faltered even though they were held to a stalemate in the second half until, that last minute of play.
Before Manchester City take their eighth unbeaten run to the Etihad for the derby against United, they travel to Liverpool for the Continental Cup on Wednesday, December 7 kicking off at 7pm.
