MANCHESTER CITY WOMEN 1, FORTUNA HJORRING 0 (Man City Women win 2-0 on aggregate)
- Double chance for Fortuna Hjorring including ignored penalty shout for handball against Steph Houghton
- Lucy Bronze’s header on 41 minutes from Melissa Lawley’s corner wins the 2nd leg for Manchester City Women
- Man City Women join Lyon, Paris St Germain, and Barcelona in the UEFA Women’s Champions League Semi Finals
Lucy Bronze’s looping header from Melissa Lawley’s corner just before half time put Manchester City Women into the Semi Finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League as they beat Fortuna Hjorring 1-0 on the night, 2-0 on aggregate.
Brian Sorensen, the Fortuna Hjorring manager, bemoaned a key decision that may have affected the fate of the tie, but accepted that it was always going to be difficult against City.
“We created three big chances in the first half – one of them was a penalty and red card in my opinion.
“If we scored the first goal we would have wanted to see how city reacted with the pressure on them.
“We were the only amateur team left in the competition, congratulations to City on going through.”
City captain Steph Houghton denied it was a penalty call against her.
She praised Lucy Bronze for her match-winning goal, explaining: “We are dangerous on set pieces.
“Once that goes in we were able to relax a bit.”
With a flurry of important games to come including the FA Cup, Houghton stressed the importance of using City’s large squad.
She said: “The next few days we get a chance to rest. We want to play as many games as we can. That’s why we have a squad and can utilise players.
“Everyone who has played their part over the last four games have got us to the semi finals of the Champions League and the FA Cup.”
City manager Nick Cushing agreed, adding:
“It’s been a collective effort. We never experienced travelling away to Russian teams and Danish teams.
“Lyon can play two teams of world class international players.”
“We need to see where the team’s mentality is against the best, and Lyon are the best team in Europe.”
City were unchanged from the 1-0 first leg win in Denmark and dominated the early stages of the second leg with chance for Jill Scott, Kosovare Asllani and an eye catching run by Carli Lloyd who went past three Fortuna players before putting a shot wide of the back post.
Fortuna were prevented from creating much but did have a golden chance to throw the tie wide open when a cut back from the left was dummied, allowing Camilla Kur Larsen to get a shot off from eight yards after 21 minutes but it was straight at Karen Bardsley.
Caroline Rask had already had a shot charged down earlier when she capitalised on a clash between Lucy Bronze and Larsen in the box to see her 24th minute shot charged down by Steph Houghton only to thrash the follow-up wide.
Fortuna may feel aggrieved to not get a penalty off City’s captain for handball in the confusion after the double injury drama but City soon glossed over it and continued to press home the attack with Lloyd shooting wide on 36 minutes while Maria Christensen saved Houghton’s 25 yard free kick.
Bronze headed City into a deserved lead with a looping header from 12 yards out shortly before half time from Melissa Lawley’s corner to put City firmly in control of the tie.
Fortuna Hjorring reshuffled their attack in the second half but City dealt with the trickery of Francisleide Dos Santos Barbosa.
There were fewer clear chances in the second period but Asllani and Lawley went close with tame efforts before City decided to close the game down after it had become scrappy.
City will join some of the biggest names in European football in the semi finals after successfully seeing the game out with a European record 2251 fans watching – they are just two games against holders Lyon away from a place in the Women’s Champions League final.