Derby defeat for City at the Etihad | OneFootball

City were beaten 4-2 by Manchester United in an end-to-end Barclays Women’s Super League clash at the Etihad Stadium.

In a breathless first half at the Etihad Stadium, the visitors raced into a 3-0 lead through strikes from Ella Toone (two) and Leah Galton.

Gareth Taylor’s side battled back though to score twice before the break through Vivianne Miedema and Rebecca Knaak’s respective well-taken headers.

But Toone completed her hat-trick shortly after half-time to extend Marc Skinner’s side’s advantage and stunt our momentum.

We endeavoured to find a way back into the fixture with Mary Fowler coming closest, but we were ultimately edged out in our first WSL match of 2025.

What happened

In what was the first meeting between the cross-city rivals this season, the Etihad Stadium provided a fitting stage with 22,497 supporters witnessing the action.

And before proceedings began, a beautifully observed minute’s applause was carried out for club legends Tony Book and Denis Law, who both passed away in the week.

The visitors opened the stronger with Elisabeth Terland curling wide inside the first minute from a promising position, with Toone also forcing Khiara Keating into a smart save before the offside flag was raised.

It was a tough start for City and United could, and arguably should, have taken the lead when Galton slammed the ball into the side netting from all of 10-yards from goal.

But Galton would play a major role in the opener, which followed in the 14th minute when she teed up Toone, who dinked into the back of the net despite the best efforts of a sliding Kerstin Casparij on the line.

With the visitors possessing the best defence in the division heading into the match, conceding just three in 11 matches, we knew we’d have to breech a watertight backline to get back into proceedings.

But our task was made harder on 21 minutes when City failed to clear a corner and Galton showed her poacher’s instinct, tapping home from close range after the ball broke kindly to her.

The Blues rallied after that setback, with Dutch duo Jill Roord and Miedema sought an immediate response, with the former teeing up the latter whose venomous effort was blocked at the last moment.

The WSL’s all-time leading scorer continued to turn the screw as we looked to pull ourselves back into the derby when she laid the ball off for Aoba Fujino to curl just wide with her left foot.

That sparked a lift in City’s tempo which began to ask the visitors frequent, defensive questions, as Mary Fowler drilled just wide from the edge of the area.

Our good recovery work was undone, though, with 10 minutes of the first half remaining when Terland pinched the ball back just inside the area and combined with Toone again, who added her second and United's third.

A bitter blow to the hosts, but City weren’t down and out before the break and responded remarkably to the set back.

The Blues immediately pushed forward with real pace and intensity, allowing Fowler to whip a deep ball into the box from the right, which was headed home by Miedema.

That injected fresh life into Taylor’s team and we reduced the deficit further when Rebecca Knaak powerfully nodded home from a corner on her WSL debut – setting up a grandstand second half.

But the sucker punch would follow seconds after the restart, with Terland chasing down Keating's clearance from kick-off, allowing Toone to tuck into an empty net for her third.

As we’ve seen from this City group countless times, though, we never know when we’re beaten and continued to push for routes back into proceedings with the backing of loud sky blue support.

First Fowler stung Phallon Tullis-Joyce's palms from the edge of the area before Roord headed just wide from a Fujino cross.

Throughout the WSL term so far, City had fought from behind in two separate league matches to claim three points – doing so in wins over Liverpool and Aston Villa.

And we’d have to draw on that experience to prevent only our third league loss of the season with Miedema again coming close – forcing Tullis-Joyce into a smart save.

United had their keeper to thank again soon after for keeping their two-goal lead intact when she spectacularly pushed Fowler’s effort wide of the post after the Australian did well to sweep Roord’s low cross towards the far corner.

However, despite a late siege on United’s defence, the goals we craved evaded us as the match ended in defeat.

HOW WE LINED UP

Gareth Taylor made six changes from the team who started the 3-0 FA Cup victory over Ipswich in our previous outing.

Khiara Keating began between the sticks and was protected by back four of Kerstin Casparij, captain Laia Aleixandri, Rebecca Knaak and Leila Ouahabi.

Yui Hasegawa returned to the base of our midfield behind Jill Roord and Jess Park who completed our engine room trio.

Our front three was then spearheaded by Vivianne Miedema with Aoba Fujino operating on the right wing and Mary Fowler on the left.

City XI: Keating, Casparij, Ouahabi (C), Knaak, Ouahabi, Hasegawa, Roord, Park, Fowler, Fujino, Miedema.

Unused substitutes: Annets, Yamashita, Kelly, Coombs, Blindkilde Brown, Prior, Oyama, Murphy, Davies.

Manchester United XI: Tullis-Joyce, George, Galton, Riviere, Le Tissier, Janssen, Terland, Turner, Ildhusoy, Toone, Miyazawa.

Unused substitutes: Awujo, Clinton, Malard, Mannion, Middleton-Patel, Sandberg, Williams.

WHAT IT MEANS

The defeat at the Etihad means we’re fourth in the WSL table on 22 points after 11 games.

WHAT’S NEXT

Next up for City is a trip to face United in the League Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday 22 January.

Kick-off in that clash is set for 19:00 (UK) at Leigh Sports Village, with a trip to Aston Villa in the WSL to follow on Saturday 25 January at 12:00 (UK).