WSL

Manchester City beat champions Chelsea 2-0 at the Academy Stadium to blow the Women's Super League title race wide open.

By the 21st minute the home team had the breakthrough, and it was a goal of Chelsea’s own making. Hayes’s side passed the ball around at the back, searching for a gap to play it out through, but when one did not open up Ann-Katrin Berger booted it away with Kelly lurking. It was the difference between the two teams in the first half.” “We were so sluggish in the first half, our third away game in a week,” Hayes said. Six wins and a draw have followed, including this 2-0 defeat of the Women’s Super League title holders Chelsea, a team City had not beaten in 12 prior WSL games. “We’ve put ourselves in a position to win the league.

Manchester City dealt Chelsea a blow in defence of their WSL crown while making a title statement of their own, while Aston Villa thrashed Leicester.

"I am not going to sit here and say a negative word about our players. I think it was one game too far for us this week.” Brighton looked on course for the win thanks to two early goals from Veatriki Sarri, but Emma Harries netted twice in the second-half to secure a point for Reading. Despite Hayes making a raft of changes, Chelsea couldn’t muster any meaningful response in the second-half and City saw out the win in their quest for a first WSL title since 2016. The result also pushes the Blues - who have a game in hand on the Manchester clubs - down to third with their first league defeat since the opening day of the season. Coming off the back of an impressive win over Lyon in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final, Emma Hayes’ side would have been confident travelling to The Academy Stadium in Manchester.

Manchester City shook up the Women's Super League (WSL) title race with a 2-0 win over reigning champions Chelsea on Sunday to move up to second place ...

However, the London side have a game in hand. Chelsea improved in the second half but struggled in the final third as City also slowed the tempo of the game down to deny the London side chances as they took the three points to set up a thrilling title race with six games left in the season. MANCHESTER, March 26 (Reuters) - Manchester City shook up the Women's Super League (WSL) title race with a 2-0 win over reigning champions Chelsea on Sunday to move up to second place behind leaders Manchester United, level on 38 points but behind on goal difference.

City are no longer just competing for Champions League football - they are genuine contenders as Chelsea's title defence took another hit.

Chelsea, a point behind, could reclaim the top spot with their game in hand. In their place came Niamh Charles and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd as they attempted to steady the ship. Their statement began with a Chelsea error and that was the tale of the game. Now, though, they’re in with a fighting chance with six games left. City remained in the ascendency and soon found themselves two goals ahead. At least they were able to do that. Esme Morgan would draw the Chelsea defence out wide and the gaps inside would continually be exploited. “I thought we were so sluggish in the first half,” said Hayes. Off went Lauren James, who had at least shown some attacking spark in the opening exchanges, alongside midfielder Sophie Ingle. After years of crushing defeats in a fixture where the frequent sense of optimism would undeniably be brought back down to earth as Sam Kerr turned the ball past Ellie Roebuck in her usual fashion, City finally seem to have cracked the code. Ann-Katrin Berger scuffed a goal-kick and it dropped to Filippa Angeldahl. “We spoke all week about ‘we have to win this game’,” said City manager Gareth Taylor.

Sports writer Bella Shepherd-Evans reports on the top-of-the-table clash between Chelsea and Manchester United in the WSL.

Regardless, Chelsea looked reinvigorated following an underwhelming performance against Arsenal the week prior and now climb to the top of the table, with high ambitions for their fourth WSL title in a row. He added the importance of investing in officials and officiating technology in the women’s game – with the presence of VAR Manchester united could have seen a very different result. Nonetheless, United came out of the game with 63% possession and yet nothing to show for it, aside from a few futile attempts. This was also to be the fate for United’s Ona Batlle, who came up against Jess Carter in a hefty aerial challenge, seeing Battle thrown to the floor in the process. A run from Nikita Parris on the right side almost saw her into the box unchallenged, until blues left back Kadeisha Buchanan came in for a challenge, taking Parris down inside the box. United have been clinging onto the number one spot since the Christmas break, and boast a squad brimming with the talent and confidence to challenge the very best this season.

What a title race we now have in the Women's Super League. After Manchester City's win over Chelsea, the top four are separated by just three points.

The important thing is we've got to move on as quickly as possible." "This was our third away game in a week and it looked like it." Asked her reasons for the early change, Hayes said: "Legs. City were exceptional today, Chelsea were not, and that's how they came out as winners." Hemp - who was a doubt for the game with illness - certainly did enough to impress Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinting legend, watching on at Academy Stadium. "I love working with the girls and they are great.

Manchester City took the first step towards delivering on head coach Gareth Taylor's demand to win all seven remaining matches when they beat defending ...

“That’s not to say that they still won’t, but if we’d lost today that would have been five points with a game in hand – at this stage of the season, I think that’s really too much," he said. The Chelsea manager felt her team looked “sluggish”, but added: “I don’t think people realise how tough it is to come up here with our third away game in seven days; really, really tough.” Both have a game in hand, and Arsenal still have pivotal fixtures to come against all three of the other challengers. Such is the extremely close nature of this engrossing, four-way title race, it is still Chelsea and Arsenal, the teams now in third and fourth, who can both say that mathematically their chances are in their own hands. They were not able to turn things around, though, and there were several glum faces in the west London team’s camp throughout the afternoon. Scarcely has the women’s game had a more open, closer-fought race for the crown.