Manchester City Women 4 Lugano 0 : City Progress To Last 16

Manchester City Women beat Lugano by 4 goals to 0 to seal their passage to the Round of 16 in the Champions League.

In the first few minutes of this match, Manchester City Women almost threatened a cricket score but that was not to be the case.

This turned out to be a relatively straightforward way of easing into the Round of 16 for the Champions League by Manchester City Women. An 11-1 aggregate win over the two legs illustrated the gulf between the two sides, but nevertheless this was a useful run out. Hopefully by the time City start to draw some of the better teams they have a squad who are less depleted by injury.

It was the passing and movement of City which separated the teams, coupled with deadly finishing. City worked the ball into danger areas with some precision whilst for all their endeavour, the exuberance of Lugano just served to run the team into difficulty.

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It took five minutes for Keira Walsh to open the Lugano team and slot a ball into the path of Janine Beckie, who in turn chipped the on-rushing goal keeper. This was a lovely goal and superbly illustrated the confidence bustling through Nick Cushing’s side.

The second goal came through a similar interaction between the same players, this time though Walsh crossed the ball low from the wing and Beckie slid in to push the ball into the goal. By this time the celebration appeared almost muted, as though Beckie was embarrassed by the ease by which the goal came.

The first half dropped some intensity levels and City seemed happy to pass the ball rather than be searching for a killer pass.

The second half started more brightly, and full of intent. Within two minutes Beckie had her hat trick and the question was simply about how many goals City might want to score. This third goal was a result of some committed play as Beckie found the ball at her feet in the area but her path blocked. Jinking the ball between her feet she created a shooting opportunity and hit the ball hard past the stricken keeper.

Pauline Bremer joined the action and also notched a goal, continuing her goal scoring run following her return to action after a lengthy injury lay off. There were moments when the goal tally could have been improved but the game finished at 4-0 and with City looking ahead to their next fixture, a Sunday lunch time kick off away to Everton in the WSL.

Cushing will have had the opportunity to spread useful game time out amongst a number of his squad in recent games and all of those players have impressed. The signs are looking good for City to mount a serious challenge across all competitions in the games to come