The league’s all-time top goal-scorer was surprisingly wasteful on Friday night, but Andree Jeglertz’s side were able to come through despite that
Manchester City fans could’ve been forgiven for thinking it just wasn’t their night when Brighton came to town on Friday. After all, it’s not often that Vivianne Miedema struggles to find the target on a regular basis, with her in the history books as the Women’s Super League’s all-time top goal-scorer for good reason. But the Cityzens managed to find a way back from the deficit inflicted on them by Fran Kirby despite a shock off night for their No.10, claiming a first win of the season thanks to goals from a very common goal-scorer, in Khadija Shaw, and a slightly more surprising one, in Yui Hasegawa, which saw the Seagulls off by a 2-1 scoreline.
It was Miedema that most of City’s big chances fell to on Friday and, on any other night, she would’ve surely had a hat-trick. Instead, it was Brighton who went in at half time with the lead in this clash, after a completely untracked Kirby breezed into the box and picked up the loose ball from Michelle Agyemang’s well-saved shot, placing it beyond Khiara Keating early on. With the Seagulls pressing well and giving their hosts plenty to worry about, they were good value for that lead too, even if chances would continue to fall to, and not be taken by, City.
That continued until just before the hour mark, when Shaw’s flying header levelled things up. From there, though Keating would be called into action from time to time, City always looked the more likely to score next and it was an injection of quality from their well-stocked bench that provided the decisive moment. On came Kerolin, fresh off the back of Copa America success this summer, and Aoba Fujino, who lit the WSL up last term in her first season overseas, and it was good link-up play between the two subs that led to Hasegawa being put through on goal, where she would make no mistake to put the Cityzens in a lead that they were able to protect, in order to secure their first win of the new campaign.
GOAL rates Man City’s players from the Joie Stadium…