Miedema’s stunning strike gives Manchester City victory in WSL thriller with Villa
The Women’s Super League’s all-time leading goalscorer Vivianne Miedema produced a stunning long-range strike to help Manchester City end their bad run of league form with victory in a six-goal thriller away at Aston Villa.
The home side were playing their final match before the arrival of their new head coach, Natalia Arroyo, who was appointed on Wednesday but was watching this fixture remotely while her visa is still being finalised. Arroyo will have been pleased with the attacking endeavour her new side showed but will know there are some issues to address defensively, after a game that neither team’s back four will have been particularly proud of.
Manchester City arrived at Villa Park having lost three of their past four WSL games, which was fully at odds with their previous form of just one defeat and 21 victories in their 23 previous WSL games. Looking to put their uncharacteristically poor run behind them, they made a terrible start as the Netherlands forward Chasity Grant opened the scoring for Villa inside six minutes on the counterattack. Grant latched onto Sarah Mayling’s ball down the right channel and emphatically fired past Ayaka Yamashita.
The home side, under the interim management of the former Manchester City men’s team player and former City women’s team assistant manager Shaun Goater for the final time, were coping with City’s threats well in the first half, causing problems whenever they broke forward, and appeared capable of keeping them at bay until suddenly they handed City an equaliser, as Dan Turner’s loose pass rolled straight into the path of Miedema to slot in the leveller.
Miedema’s second goal, however, was almost unstoppable, as she curled a delightful strike into the top corner that will likely go on the eventual list of contenders for the WSL’s goal of the season. Her Netherlands teammate Jill Roord also rolled a low shot narrowly wide in the first 45 minutes as the visitors’ confidence grew.
Villa pulled level inside the first minute of the second half when Laia Aleixandri inadvertently angled Kirsty Hanson’s cross into her own net, but the Australia forward Mary Fowler’s deflected effort soon made it 3-2 at the other end and Jess Park tucked home Kerstin Casparij’s clever right-wing cross to made the points safe for the away side.
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The victory came in head coach Gareth Taylor’s 100th WSL match in charge of Manchester City, and moved them back up to second in the table, albeit they have played an additional fixture compared to all of their title and Champions League qualification rivals.