Manchester City’s hopes of catching Chelsea in the Women’s Super League (WSL) title race were seriously dented on Sunday as Everton claimed an unlikely 2-1 victory at Walton Hall.
Everton move out of the relegation places with the win, while City’s failure to captalise on Chelsea’s first dropped points of the season at Leicester City on Saturday leaves them six points behind the reigning champions.
The defeat was made worse for City as two of their rivals for the Champions League places both won, with Arsenal downing Liverpool and Manchester United edging past Crystal Palace.
Everton had never picked up points against City in the WSL before Sunday’s clash but Brian Sørensen’s players showed no signs of mental scars, flying out of the blocks and creating a number of chances in a breathless first half.
The pressure told after 31 minutes as Sara Holmgaard dinked a ball into the penalty area from the right flank and Lucy Hope guided a header past Khiara Keating to give the hosts the lead.
The advantage was then doubled as the first period drew to its close. Honoka Hayashi found space inside the box and saw her shot deflect into the bottom-left corner to leave the visitors shell-shocked at the break.
Gareth Taylor’s City side emerged for the second half with renewed vigour and Courtney Brosnan was forced into action on a number of occasions in the Everton net.
Jill Roord and Lily Murphy both went close but the deficit was only halved in the 89th minute after Karoline Olesen brought down Yui Hasegawa in the box and Australia striker Mary Fowler thumped home the resultant penalty.
That made for a nervy close to the game but Everton held out to spark jubilant celebrations at the full-time whistle.
Meanwhile, at St Helens stadium, Alessia Russo’s first-half goal from a corner was enough to see off Liverpool. Mariona Caldentey hit the post with a penalty for the visitors but Renee Slegers’ side proved difficult to break down for Liverpool and now move to just one point behind City in the WSL table.
Liverpool coach Matt Beard said after the game that he hopes Slegers gets the role on a full-time basis given the turnaround since she replaced Jonas Eidevall.
“I hope Renee gets the job,” he said. “She’s done a fantastic job. It’s night and day from Jonas’ Arsenal to what I’m seeing now and you could just see that.
“I was speaking to the staff and some of the players, you can see they’re enjoying their football again.”
In another of Sunday’s games, United travelled to southeast London to play Crystal Palace and returned home with all the points after Grace Clinton helped herself after the Palace backline passed their way into trouble. Marc Skinner’s team are fourth, level on points with Arsenal.
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