Manchester City maintain perfect WCL start as Fujino seals win over Hammarby

Manchester City enjoyed a third win out of three Women’s Champions League group-stage games with victory over Hammarby but the English side now face an anxious wait to learn whether or not the England winger Lauren Hemp will be available for Saturday’s hotly-anticipated top-of-the-table clash with Chelsea.

Hemp was unable to play in Tuesday’s meeting with the Swedish visitors because of a potential, as yet unspecified injury, the Manchester City head coach, Gareth Taylor, revealed following the game, where second-half goals from the youngsters Laura Blindkilde Brown and Aoba Fujino give his side a deserved 2-0 victory in Hemp’s absence.

The English top-flight leaders performed below the high standards they have set so far this season but will have been glad to get the job done nonetheless, on a night when they were without the creative influence of the in-form Hemp, who provided three assists in their previous outing and who has created the most chances (26) of any player in the WSL so far this term.

“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further. That’s all. It’s something that potentially happened in the [Crystal] Palace game. She was able to play in the Spurs game but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more,” Taylor explained. When asked if Hemp could play on Saturday, he added: “Hopefully, yes hopefully. There’s an opportunity there, so we’ll just have to take our moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”

Hemp’s absence on Tuesday had been a surprise, but the hosts still dominated and Taylor was keen to praise the performance of his squad players who stepped up. Yet this was no easy win. If any City fans had assumed this would be a walkover, having seen that Hammarby were trounced 9-0 in their previous away game in this group when up against the defending champions, Barcelona, they were soon proved wrong as the visitors’ defence put up a significantly stronger resistance.

Taylor had, on Monday, described that 9-0 scoreline as “misleading”, warning his team not to be complacent. That hefty deficit had clearly not deterred the Swedish team’s die-hard travelling supporters, whose partisan contribution provided a soundtrack that was relatively unique in the context of the Women’s Champions League, where away followings can often be minimal.

Just under 400 Hammarby fans had spent the afternoon singing proudly in Manchester city centre and they carried their tifo, green and white scarves and a constantly-banging drum to the Joie Stadium, where they never once let up the noise. Their chanting was ever-present in the chilly November air, regardless of the fact that the home team were controlling almost all of the possession, and they almost went into overdrive when their Japan midfielder Asato Miyagawa hooked a shot narrowly over the crossbar shortly before half-time. That would have been decidedly against the run of play, though, after an opening period which had seen Taylor’s side dominate the territory and the chances.

The Jamaica striker Khadija Shaw and the Australia forward Mary Fowler had both gone close for the hosts in the first half, but it took fewer than 90 seconds for City to finally break the deadlock after the half-time break, however, as the England youth international Blindkilde Brown scored her first Champions League goal, and only her second goal for City since her January arrival from Aston Villa.

The 21-year-old provided the neat, close-range finish to a move which showed the perfect demonstration of City’s slick first-time passing. The hosts switched the ball from right to left, with Jess Park, Fujino and Yui Hasegawa all involved before Fowler cut the ball back straight into Blindkilde Brown’s path, and her teammates were visibly delighted for her to become a goalscorer in Europe.

They remained purposeful in attack and added a second when the Japan playmaker Fujino met Leila Ouahabi’s left-wing cross. The 20-year-old Fujino had earlier struck the post but refused to be denied as she eventually found her second goal of the season since signing for City this summer. The result ensured that a victory in Sweden next week would guarantee Taylor’s side a place in the knockout stages, and still with games to spare.