Manchester City Women Return To Form With Crushing Win

Manchester City Women returned to form as they crushed Leicester City Women 6-0 in their delayed FA Cup quarter-final match at the Academy Stadium.

A hat-trick from Bunny Shaw, together with goals from Vicky Losada, Alex Greenwood and Filippa Angeldahl eased the pressure on Gareth Taylor as the blues recovered from their heavy defeat to set up a semi-final clash with Chelsea.

Before te match, manager Taylor lamented his team’s injury crisis, and the absence of players was further fuelled when new signings Alanna Kennedy and Ruby Mace were ruled out of the match after featuring in earlier rounds for Birmingham and Spurs last season.

And Taylor was concerned about the level of fitness within his squad, with fatigue causing a major problem from the team. Ten of City’s squad represented Team GB at the Olympics over the summer and seven were called up to the England team that faced North Macedonia and Luxembourg, which resulted in injury to captain Steph Houghton.

As a result, Taylor was ony able to name four substitutes for the match against Leicester, and the fatigue showed in the first half as the blues laboured to a goalless half. The blues applied the pressure, but couldn’t find a way through the stubborn Foxes defence.

But that all changed in the second half as City moved up a gear, and a minuted into the second half, the blues were in front. Shaw got on the end of Lauren Hemp’s ball and slid home for the opening goal.

The blues must have been relieved as the ball hit the back of the net following Sunday’s defeat, and when Losada drove forward from midfield in the 53rd minute, it was only going to end one way. That Spaniard unleashed a thunderbolt that flew into the goal from the edge of the area.

Losada had suffered a first half injury, yet carried on until the goal and was eventually replaced Keira Walsh, who herself was returning to the sqaud following a calf injury.

Nine minutes later and Shaw was on the scoresheet again to record her third goa for the club and make the tie safe, before stand-in skipper Greenwood made it 4-0 from the penalty spot after Hemp had been brought down in the box.

Shaw completed her hat-trick on 85 minutes and a first goal in City colours for Angeldahl secured a much-needed victory for the blues.

City now face Chelsea in the semi-final as the blues look to defend the trophy they won against Everyon at Wembley almost 12 months ago, and the girls must now prepare for Sunday’s visit of West Ham as they look to get their WSL campaign back on track.

Final Score: Manchester City Women 6-0 Leicester City Women