Shaw strikes twice in Manchester City’s confident win over Paris FC

Manchester City finally ended their disappointing streak in Europe’s top club competition by completing a thoroughly comprehensive 8-0 aggregate victory over the French side Paris FC in qualifying. This means they will be involved in the Women’s Champions League group stages for the first time since the competition’s format was changed to introduce round-robin groups.

Gareth Taylor’s confident-looking side were not involved in Europe at all last season and had been eliminated by Real Madrid in the qualifying rounds of the two consecutive campaigns prior to that. They will now contest the last-16 stage of the competition for the first time since the 2020-21 season, when the knockout format was still in use, and will harbour realistic ambitions of going deep into the competition this time on the evidence of their strong showing over their two legs against Paris FC.

Khadija Shaw scored two of Manchester City’s second-leg goals in a 3-0 victory on a bitterly cold night.

Moments before kick-off, the crowd were confused by the ominous sound of a siren and an announcement instructing everybody to evacuate the Joie Stadium, prompting the fans to head for the exits, only for it to quickly turn out to have been a false alarm. A fire alarm had unintentionally been triggered and, within a minute, spectators were instructed to return to their seats. The players had already been in the tunnel, ready to walk on to the pitch, but fortunately the start of the game was delayed by only four minutes.

If any Manchester City fans had been wary of the danger of a Paris FC comeback, that threat was also very quickly eradicated, as Chloe Kelly capitalised on sloppy defending to pounce at the back post and put the hosts 1-0 up on the night, and 6-0 up on aggregate, inside the first two minutes. That Manchester City would qualify already felt certain after their resounding first-leg win in France and this goal made that feel safe.

Just after the half-hour, Shaw slotted in the second goal of the night from Kelly’s well-timed low cross into her path. For Shaw, who was bizarrely unable to travel to the first leg because Manchester City failed to apply for her visa in time, it was her first goal of the season, as the Jamaica striker seeks to build on last term, when she won the Women’s Super League’s Golden Boot.

City enjoyed control of the tie right from the start of the first leg, which was at odds with Paris FC’s impressive run in Europe last season, when they enjoyed shock victories over Arsenal and Wolfsburg during qualifying and then beat Real Madrid twice in the group stage. They had been seen as potentially difficult opponents for City, who themselves are no strangers to falling short in the qualifying rounds.

If any reminder was needed of the difficulty of qualifying for the group stages, it came in the French capital in one of Thursday’s early-evening kick-offs, where Paris Saint-Germain were surprisingly eliminated at the hands of Juventus. The England goalkeeper Mary Earps joined PSG on a free transfer from Manchester United this summer, eager to compete in Europe’s top club competition and challenge for trophies, but PSG, who reached the Champions League semi-finals last season, were defeated 5-2 on aggregate.

Such a shock here was never really on the cards, not since Vivianne Miedema had opened the scoring in the first leg in Paris. The Netherlands striker was rested on Thursday, along with other first-choice starting players including Lauren Hemp, but despite some rotation, Taylor’s team remained fully dominant of the possession.

Shaw netted her second from the penalty spot in the second half, after being tripped inside the box. Chiamaka Nnadozie got a touch to Shaw’s spot-kick but could not keep it out and, in her frustration, the Nigeria goalkeeper kicked the ball high above the stands and was booked for doing so.

It was a cue for Manchester City’s fans to celebrate the prospect of continuing on the road towards May’s final in Lisbon, as they sang “We’re all going on a European tour”. They will find out their group-stage opponents in Friday lunchtime’s draw, finally back in the big time and eager to rekindle the form they showed in 2017 and 2018 when they were back-to-back semi-finalists.