We climbed to third in the Barclays Women’s Super League with a 1-0 win over league leaders Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

Renée Slegers chose to start Olivia Smith in a central position up front for the first time and was richly rewarded when she got on the end of a magnificent Mariona Caldentey pass to open the scoring, and that was all it took to separate the sides.

FIRST HALF

Former Gunner Vivianne Miedema went for goal straight away after kick-off, shooting wide of the bottom left from the edge of the area. Caitlin Foord’s cross at the other end evaded everyone and went out for a goal-kick.

We broke the deadlock in the 17th minute when Mariona played a tidy one-two with Kim Little and sent Olivia Smith through on goal. She muscled past Rebecca Knaak and went around Ayaka Yamashita before rolling the ball across the line for 1-0.

Foord went for goal from distance but shot straight at Yamashita as we looked to double our lead, and Katie McCabe won the ball in the final third before having a go with plenty of power, but the ball flew just wide of the post.

Khadija Shaw got her first sight of goal in the 38th minute, but her effort was too soft and central to trouble Daphne van Domselaar.

We come close again to making it 2-0 with half-time approaching, Foord’s shot coming out to Mariona, who volleys over the bar from just inside the D, and Alessia Russo forcing a good save from Yamashita, aiming towards the bottom left with the Man City goalkeeper getting down well to concede a corner.

The latter was called into action again moments later as Beth Mead’s corner reached Russo and her header was pushed onto the roof of the net.

SECOND HALF

It took until the 57th minute for anything of note to occur in the second half, when Shaw tried to catch Van Domselaar out with a cross towards the near post, but our goalkeeper had it covered. Smith quickly broke free on the right and cut in onto her left foot before winning a corner for us at the other end.

Our pressure on City continued as Little carried us forward and found Foord on the left, but she struck into the side netting.

The coaching team made their first change in the 67th minute with Frida Maanum replacing Mead. Miedema found a way through with 12 minutes left on the clock, but McCabe did really well to make a vital tackle.

We made a triple change with seven minutes to go as Smilla Holmberg, Leah Williamson and Chloe Kelly came on for McCabe, Steph Catley and Smith.

Miedema again came close to creating an opening for an equaliser late on but Williamson got her body in the way before Laia Codina replaced Mariona.

Six minutes were added on at the end of the second half and we held onto all three points.

What’s next

We return to Belgium to face OH Leuven once again in the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final play-offs. It’s a 5.45pm kick-off (UK time) on Wednesday, February 11.

Then, we’re off to the Broadfield Stadium in Crawley to take on Brighton & Hove Albion in Sunday’s WSL encounter at 2.30pm.

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