Long has the Women’s Champions League craved the sight of a jam-packed, vociferous, all-standing section of home supporters roaring their team on from behind the home goal. But on Thursday, Manchester City saw one of the downsides of such hostility as their striker Khadija Shaw was struck by a coin thrown from the end housing the most partisan Hammarby fans.
Such scenes have been remarkably rare to date in Europe’s premier women’s club competition, but replays showed Shaw was hit on the body and recoiled, after the object was launched towards her from behind the goal while she was celebrating opening the scoring for Manchester City with a heavily deflected effort that looped into the far corner. Shaw, the leading goalscorer in England’s Women’s Super League this season with seven goals, was apparently the pantomime villain in the eyes of the home side’s ultras. She held her arms aloft in front of the Swedish club’s fans, was shown a yellow card for her celebration and appeared baffled at that decision in light of having been hit by an object.
But Shaw would have the last laugh as her devastating, powerfully struck second goal from long range, which was rifled into the roof of the net with undoubted class and nonchalant effort, proved to be the winning goal and was enough to mathematically ensure Manchester City’s qualification for the quarter-finals.
“It was a very difficult game tonight,” said Shaw. “The most important thing is qualifying and that’s what we’ve done. We have the experience and quality in the team and we’re used to these atmospheres.”
Gareth Taylor’s team have looked well on course for the knockout stages ever since they opened their group-stage campaign with a headline-grabbing victory over the defending champions Barcelona, but this victory in the Swedish capital – added to their home win over Hammarby in the reverse fixture – means they got the job done with two group matches to spare.
Shaw’s winning goal was of the highest calibre and was her 12th of the season in all competitions. At the other end, Manchester City were indebted to the England goalkeeper Khiara Keating for three top-drawer saves to keep the home side at bay, in front of the raucous home fans.
Most fans at the Stockholm Arena were well-behaved and the upside of such ardent home support was a key factor in the second half as they spurred Hammarby to their equaliser and created a terrific atmosphere for the most part – the likes of which has been rarely heard in this competition.
To their credit, the hosts created a cacophony of noise throughout and their players responded with a performance of high energy and attacking intent. They levelled when Ellen Wangerheim tucked in at the far post after a slip from the Manchester City youngster Gracie Prior, while the visitors were appealing for a foul on Laura Blindkilde Brown, who received her first senior England call-up on Tuesday.
Barcelona are all but through to the Women's Champions League quarter-finals after a 4-1 win over St Pölten in Vienna.
Two goals from Kika Nazareth, plus strikes from Vicky López and Alexia Putellas, ensured a dominant victory for the visitors, though the Austrian side nabbed a consolation via Valentina Mädl.
While Hammarby could still technically progress from Group D despite their 2-1 defeat to the frontrunners, Manchester City, they would need to beat Barça 10-0, having lost 9-0 in Catalonia in October.
Elsewhere, in Group C, Bayern Munich were held to a 1-1 draw by Vålerenga after Elise Thorsnes's late equaliser cancelled out Jovana Damnjanovic's opener.
The result represents a window of opportunity for Arsenal after their 1-0 win over Juventus. While Bayern still top the group, their lead has been cut to one point with two games left to play including, in December, a trip to Meadow Park.
The home side had also gone very close in the first half through the former Manchester City winger Julie Blakstad, after the Norway international Cathinka Tandberg had bounced a low shot wide. More than 15,000 fans were reported to have bought tickets but it looked like more were inside the Stockholm Arena. About 400 of the Swedish club’s supporters had made the trip to Manchester for the previous fixture. On Thursday, a handful of Manchester City fans endured temperatures of -6C (42F) as their team learned a new meaning for the phrase “a difficult place to go”.
The result for Manchester City was ever more impressive for the fact it came amid the continued absence through injury of the in-form winger Lauren Hemp, who had surgery on a knee problem last week, Vivianne Miedema, also sidelined after minor knee surgery, and Laia Aleixandri, among others. Taylor was able to name only six substitutes compared with Hammarby’s 10, and only four of Manchester City’s available substitutes were outfield players.
“Really pleased, it was about qualification for us tonight,” Taylor said, before referencing the plastic pitch. “It was a really gritty performance, on the quality of this pitch it probably didn’t look it for the viewers watching it but it was a really lively surface. We worked so hard.”
The win came after their first defeat of the season on Saturday, away at the WSL leaders, Chelsea, who hold a 100% record this term and joined Manchester City in the knockout stages of the Champions League with their win over Celtic on Wednesday.
