Khadija Shaw scored a second-half winner to help Man City Women produce one of the narrow football results of the weekend in the Women’s Super League. The top scorer in the WSL scored her eighth goal of the year to pull fourth-place City within three points of the top three teams. At Walton Hall Park, City took the lead in the 32nd minute when Julie Blakstad slipped the ball into an empty net. Everton answered eight minutes later when Rikke Sevecke headed the ball in. However, four minutes into the second half, the visitors regained the advantage when Shaw knocked in Laura Coombs’ long-range shot that had hit the post and bounced to her. After winning all 13 of their prior WSL encounters with the Toffees, City hung on to maintain their perfect record against seventh-place Everton.
With their first assault, City nearly took the lead when Shaw’s cross found Chloe Kelly at the back post, but Everton goalkeeper Emily Ramsey made a great stop after only 25 seconds. However, Taylor’s team did earn a goal after the halfway point when Shaw was let free by Leila Ouahabi’s pass and used selflessness to set up Blakstad for her first league goal of the season. However, Everton’s lone corner of the first half resulted in a goal in the 40th minute when Sevecke’s downward header from City goalkeeper Sandy MacIver’s punched clearance hit the back of the net.
However, the dangerous Shaw gave City a 2-1 lead in the 49th minute with his fifth straight WSL goal. In the space of 61 seconds, City had three chances to score a third goal blocked off the line, hit the post, and had a header hit the crossbar. Sevecke successfully cleared Coombs’ driving effort off the line to start the dramatic flurry of activity. Following a cross, Blakstad had a looping attempt blocked onto the post by Ramsey, then from a tight angle, Blakstad headed Kelly’s overhead kick rebound against the crossbar.
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