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Manchester City Women knocked in another four goals to demolish West Ham at the Academy Stadium. Goals from Caroline Weir, Georgia Stanway, Ellen White and Rose Lavelle kept the blues in third place in the WSL table, keeping up with leaders Chelsea and second placed Manchester United.
City had scored 14 goals in their last two games, after thrashing Aston Villa and Brighton 7-0 and 7-1 respectively, and needed to win to keep up with leaders Chelsea, who had earlier beat Tottenham 4-0, and United, who would defeat Everton 2-0 after City’s match had finished.
City gave a debut to new signing Abby Dahlkemper, but the USA international had a quiet afternoon at the heart of City’s defence and the blues spent most of the match inside the West Ham half of the pitch.
And the visitors must have been worried about another City landslide when Weir met Chloe Kelly’s cross and, after taking a touch, fired across the keeper after just 9 minutes. City spent much of the half in possession of the ball inside the Hammers half, but were finding it difficult to get that elusive second goal.
That is until the 39th minute when Kelly played a forward ball to the marauding Lucy Bronze, whose cross was met by Hemp. The City winger mis-kicked her shot, but the ball bounced off the knee of a West Ham defender and fell kindly to Stanway, who hammered her shot into the roof of the net.
City continued the pressure in the second half but the Hammers continued to stand firm, but the resistance was broken again on 62 minutes, Alex Greenwood’s corner was met at the near post by the head of White, and she flicked the ball over the defence and not the far corner for 3-0.
And the blues wrapped up the match in the 71st minute, thanks to another mistake by the West Ham defence. Under no pressure, Maz Pacheco inexplicably fell to the floor and Lavelle nipped in and fired past the keeper to make it 4-0.
Final Score: Manchester City Women 4-0 West Ham Women