Manchester City maintained their 100% start in the Women’s Champions League group stage as second-half goals from youngsters Laura Blindkilde Brown and Aoba Fujino were enough to beat a determined Hammarby side.
The English top-flight leaders performed below the high standards they have set so far this season but will have been glad to get the job done nonetheless, on a night when they were without the creative influence of the in-form England winger Lauren Hemp. The dogged resistance of the visitors was eventually overcome by the clever passing of the hosts, who stayed top of their group and are well on course for a place in the quarter-finals.
If any City fans had assumed this would be a walkover, having seen that Hammarby were trounced 9-0 in their previous away game in this group when up against the defending champions, Barcelona, they were soon proved wrong as the visitors’ defence put up a significantly stronger resistance. The City head coach, Gareth Taylor had, on Monday, described that 9-0 scoreline as “misleading”, warning his team not to be complacent. That hefty deficit had clearly not deterred the Swedish team’s die-hard travelling supporters, whose partisan contribution provided a soundtrack that was relatively unique in the context of the Women’s Champions League, where away followings can often be minimal.
Just under 400 Hammarby fans had spent the afternoon singing proudly in Manchester city centre and they carried their tifo, green and white scarves and a constantly-banging drum to the Joie Stadium, where they never once let up the noise. Their chanting was ever-present in the chilly November air, regardless of the fact that the home team were controlling almost all of the possession, and they almost went into overdrive when their Japan midfielder Asato Miyagawa hooked a shot narrowly over the crossbar shortly before half-time. That would have been decidedly against the run of play, though, after an opening period which had seen Taylor’s side dominate the territory and the chances.
The Jamaica striker Khadija Shaw and the Australia forward Mary Fowler had both gone close for the hosts, who were themselves victorious over Barcelona in their group opener but were certainly not quite as impressive as they were when disposing of the Catalan giants. Hammarby, who started the Norway and former City winger Julie Blakstad against her former club, had eliminated Benfica in qualifying and were demonstrating their high work rate once again.
It took fewer than 90 seconds for City to finally break the deadlock after the half-time break, however, as the England youth international Blindkilde Brown scored her first Champions League goal, and only her second goal for City since her January arrival from Aston Villa. The 21-year-old provided the neat, close-range finish to a move which had provided the perfect demonstration of City’s slick first-time passing. The hosts switched the ball from right to left, with Jess Park, Fujino and Yui Hasegawa all involved before Fowler cut the ball back straight into Blindkilde Brown’s path, and her teammates were visibly delighted for her to become a goalscorer in Europe.
Sandwiched in between the match and next Thursday’s reverse fixture in Sweden, Taylor’s team face a box-office clash with the defending Women’s Super League champions, Chelsea, as second hosts first in the WSL on Saturday. With that proverbial six-pointer looking on the horizon, perhaps it was inevitable that City would not play at 100% intensity against Hammarby.
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Taylor made a flurry of late substitutes, surely with more than half an eye on that meeting with the Frenchwoman Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea side.
Yet they remained purposeful in attack 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 post but refused to be denied as she eventually found her second goal of the season since signing for City this summer. The result ensured that a victory in Sweden next week would guarantee Taylor’s side a place in the knockout stages, and still with games to spare.
