Manchester City secured their spot in the Champions League knockout rounds with two group games to spare after Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw, who appeared to be struck by an object, scored both goals in a 2-1 win over Hammarby Women.
Gareth Taylor’s side secured a place in the quarter-finals by maintaining their 100 per cent record in the competition in Stockholm where a crowd of 20,248 witnessed the game – a record attendance for a women’s club match in Sweden.
City just needed a point to progress, but produced a repeat of the 2-0 victory recorded in last week’s reverse fixture where second-half efforts from Laura Blindkilde Brown and Aoba Fujino got the job done.
Shaw was booked for apparent excessive celebrations
Shaw overtook Georgia Stanway and Janine Beckie to become City’s all-time top scorer in the competition, scoring in either half in Stockholm to take her career tally to seven in the competition.
“It’s a good feeling,” Shaw told City’s website. “It was a difficult game tonight, but we managed to get the job done.
“It was a very difficult game tonight. The atmosphere and the pitch – it was our first time playing on astroturf so it took us a while to get going.
“Once we did, we tried to execute what we know we’re good at. Some parts we could’ve tidied up on but at the end of the day the most important thing is qualifying and that’s what we’ve done. We have the experience and quality in the team and we’re used to these atmospheres.”
Ellen Wangerheim cancelled out Shaw’s opener at the start of the second half, but Shaw restored City’s lead in the 52nd minute and Khiara Keating came up with some key saves to see the game out for City.
City, needing only a point to be sure of progressing with two games to spare, responded well to Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Chelsea which ended their unbeaten start to the Women’s Super League campaign as they maintained their perfect start in the Champions League.
A crowd of 20,248 witnessed the game – a record attendance for a women’s club match in Sweden
But to do it, they had to overcome both a difficult start to the game and a strong response from the hosts once they had fallen behind. Roared on by another bumper crowd at the Tele2 Arena, Hammarby began brightly.
Former City midfielder Julie Blakstad was proving a particularly tricky customer as she pulled the strings, with Cathinka Tandberg flashing a shot wide early on.
Wangerheim then got in front of Leila Ouahabi to reach a Blakstad cross but stabbed wide from close range.
City had only half-chances in the opening half an hour, but Shaw broke the deadlock with a deflected strike on 32 minutes.
The striker was booked for excessive celebrations by referee Silvia Gasperotti despite appearing to be struck by an object thrown by a section of home supporters.
Blakstad shot just wide as Hammarby tried to level before the break, but instead they had to wait until three minutes after the restart.
Keating was unable to stretch to cut out Blakstad’s cross, and Wangerheim was on hand at the back post to turn it in.
Parity lasted only four minutes, however, as Jess Park played in Shaw who fired into the top corner from the edge of the area, her 12th goal in 13 games in all competitions this season.
No sooner had City retaken the lead than Hammarby went close to levelling, but for an outstanding double save from Keating, who denied Tandberg and then jumped to her feet to keep out an even better effort from Blakstad on the follow-up.
City had chances to kill the game off late on. Shaw’s cross found the run of Aoba Fujino with 10 minutes to go but the Japan striker’s shot was palmed aside for a corner.
At the other end, Keating had to make another big save to keep out Anna Josendal’s effort following a corner, diving to her right to stop a powerful strike, and City hung on for another three-point haul.
“Really pleased, it was about qualification for us tonight,” City boss Taylor said. “It was a really gritty performance, on the quality of this pitch it probably didn’t look it for the viewers watching it but it was a really lively surface. We worked so hard.
“I felt there were some areas we could have controlled the play better. Have to give credit to Hammarby, they were really aggressive. Really pleased and proud of the players, they dug in tonight.”
What next?
A number of City players will now depart to join up with their respective nations ahead of the international break. Taylor’s side will return to action in the WSL with a clash against Leicester at the Joie Stadium on December 8
