Khadija Shaw’s brace fired Manchester City into the quarter-finals of the Women’s Champions League as they maintained their perfect record in Group D with a 2-1 win away to Hammarby.
Shaw overtook Georgia Stanway and Janine Beckie to become City’s all-time top scorer in the competition, scoring in either half in Stockholm to take her career tally to seven in the competition.
Ellen Wangerheim cancelled out Shaw’s 31st-minute opener at the start of the second half, but Shaw restored City’s lead in the 52nd minute and Khiara Keating came up with some key saves to see the game out for City.
City, needing only a point to be sure of progressing with two games to spare, responded well to Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Chelsea which ended their unbeaten start to the Women’s Super League campaign as they maintained their perfect start in the Champions League.
But to do it, they had to overcome both a difficult start to the game and a strong response from the hosts once they had fallen behind. Roared on by another bumper crowd of around 20,000 at the Tele2 Arena, Hammarby began brightly as they sought to avenge their 2-0 defeat in Manchester last week.
Former City midfielder Julie Blakstad was proving a particularly tricky customer as she pulled the strings, with Cathinka Tandberg flashing a shot wide early on.
Wangerheim then got in front of Leila Ouahabi to reach a Blakstad cross but stabbed wide from close range.
City had only half-chances in the opening half an hour, but took the lead in the 31st minute when Shaw cut in from the left and her shot from the edge of the area found the net with the help of a deflection, although the Jamaican was then booked for celebrating in front of the home fans.
Blakstad shot just wide as Hammarby tried to level before the break, but instead they had to wait until three minutes after the restart.
Keating was unable to stretch to cut out Blakstad’s cross, and Wangerheim was on hand at the back post to turn it in.
Parity lasted only four minutes, however, as Jess Park played in Shaw who fired into the top corner from the edge of the area, her 12th goal in 13 games in all competitions this season.
No sooner had City retaken the lead than Hammarby went close to levelling, but for an outstanding double save from Keating, who denied Tandberg and then jumped to her feet to keep out an even better effort from Blakstad on the follow-up.
City had chances to kill the game off late on. Shaw’s cross found the run of Aoba Fujino with 10 minutes to go but the Japan striker’s shot was palmed aside for a corner.
At the other end, Keating had to make another big save to keep out Anna Josendal’s effort following a corner, diving to her right to stop a powerful strike, and City hung on for another three-point haul.
PA
