Mary Fowler’s late header sealed Manchester City’s dramatic 3-2 win against St. Polten in the Women’s Champions League, continuing their unbeaten start to the season.
City started strongly in Austria with Alanna Kennedy scoring in style with a stunning long-range strike in only the seventh minute.
The visitors then came close to doubling their lead through Laura Blindkilde Brown, who was denied by Carina Schlueter’s fingertips, before Aoba Fujino’s effort hit the post shortly after.
Despite their dominance, City fell just a second short in their quest and were eventually stunned by a St Polten strike just before the break.
Alex Greenwood awarded a corner after gaining possession in his own penalty area and the City captain was made to pay for his mistake.
The resulting set-piece saw the ball circle the box and, with City unable to clear their lines, Melanie Brunthaler wasted no time slotting home past Chiara Keating to equalise.
St. Polten’s Melanie Brunthaler celebrates her team’s first goal against Manchester City
St Polten’s strong performance continued after the break as Kamila Dubkova turned well and fired home an effort shortly after the restart, but her goal was quickly canceled out by Fujino’s volley at the back.
Lauren Hamp, Khadijah Shaw, Jill Roard and Laya Alexander all got calls from the bench, but it was Fowler, who also hit the woodwork in the first half, who eventually put City ahead from a corner.
Alanna Kennedy celebrates her early opener against St Polten
The players decide the game
Sky Sports’ Patrick Rowe.
Both St Polten’s goals came from City failing to clear the lines from set-pieces, but ironically it was a corner that saved Gareth Taylor’s side in this game.
“The defense for the first goal was comical in their own area and captain Greenwood will not be happy with his decisions until the second goal is scored.
“There are lessons to be learned in terms of clearing the ball and preventing the second half of the game from being the key, but City came out of this game with all three points.”
Schluter: The defeat against City hurts
Saint Polten goalkeeper Karina Schlüter.
“Now it’s quite disappointing and it’s unfortunate. You should be able to rejoice in such a result, but it may take a few days.
“You just want to win every game and we were close, we did really well, played two great halves. I don’t think anyone expected that from us before the game.
“We know now that we can make it difficult for the big teams and that we don’t have to make ourselves as small as many people say. We are extremely excited for the next challenges and we will see how it goes.”
When are the Champions League group stages?
Here are the remaining dates of the matches.
Game 3: November 12/13 Game 4. November 20/21 Game 5. December 11/12 Game 6: December 17/18
