MANCHESTER CITY WOMEN 1, LIVERPOOL LADIES 0 (SSE Women’s FA Cup Semi Final)
- Melissa Lawley’s first goal for Manchester City Women sends them to Wembley for the first time to play in the SSE Women’s FA Cup FInal
- Liverpool had controlled much of the game and hit the post early on through Kate Longhurst
- Match watched by a crowd of 3459 at the City Football Academy with over 6000 viewing on Facebook
Melissa Lawley scored her first goal for Manchester City Women to send them through to the SSE Women’s FA Cup Final after sealing a tight 1-0 win over north west rivals Liverpool Ladies.
City overcame a conservative Liverpool side who dominated possession and crowded the midfield to set up a Wembley date.
Both sides played a full part in the first half, but City forced the first save from Liverpool after Lucy Bronze’s cutback reached Melissa Lawley but her shot was smothered by ‘keeper Siobhan Chamberlain after just five minutes.
Kate Longhurst had earlier seen her shot come off the outside of the post after a cross from Shanice Van de Sanden as both sides made full use of the flanks.
Liverpool successfully closed down the spaces in the centre of the park with a packed midfield, dominating possession, and leaving City with a tough job to get through their north west rivals.
City were restricted to half chances by Lucy Bronze and Jill Scott who failed to cleanly connect with a diving header from Lawley’s cross which could have broken the deadlock.
They had to be watchful of the threat from Liverpool, however, as Steph Houghton blocked a shot by Katie Zelem whose time taken to control ex-City forward Tash Harding’s cross allowed the City captain to get in front of her.
Tricks and flicks weren’t coming off for City as Liverpool remained comfortable in the second half.
Lawley missed with a header after a period of City attacking they failed to carve out anything more than a half chance.
Bronze thrashed a chance over the bar in the 54th minute as City improved but they still couldn’t overcome the Liverpool press.
Melissa Lawley scores her first goal for Man City Women
A City move looked to be going out of control just before the hour as the ball pinged between Carli Lloyd and Jane Ross before it fell to Lawley who smashed it past Siobhan Chamberlain from 25 yards out.
The goal knocked Liverpool’s confidence and City took duly control as they tried to finish off their visitors.
City could have doubled their advantage less than four minutes later when Izzy Christiansen found Lloyd on the edge of the area and the American turned and stung Chamberlain’s palms with a fierce shot.
Lloyd also headed over from Lawley’s free kick and sent a late shot wide after substitutes Nikita Parris and Toni Duggan had forced the tiring visitors back with direct running on both flanks, finally exposing the space which Lloyd had been denied earlier in the game.
With time running out Liverpool had a final flurry but Caroline Weir’s deep cross for Harding was collected by Karen Bardsley under pressure from her former City team mate.
And Bardsley was also down quick to stop a shot by Weir in added time as City saw out the match to the delight of the home fans.