LONDON — Khadija Shaw scored twice and Manchester City advanced to the Women´s Champions League quarter-finals with a 2-1 win at Swedish club Hammarby.
City stayed perfect in the competition with four victories and reached the last eight for the first time since 2021 – and with two games to spare in Group D, AP reported.
Man City joins Chelsea, Lyon and Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.
Such scenes have been remarkably rare to date, in Europe’s premier women’s club competition, but replays showed Shaw was hit on the body and recoiled, as the object was launched towards her from behind the goal while she was celebrating opening the scoring for Manchester City with a heavily deflected effort that looped in to the far corner.
Shaw, the leading goalscorer in England’s Women’s Super League this season with seven goals, was apparently the pantomime villain in the eyes of the home side’s ultras.
She held her arms aloft in front of the Swedish club’s fans, was shown a yellow card for her celebration and appeared baffled at that decision in light of having been hit by an object.
But Shaw would have the last laugh as her devastating, powerfully-struck second goal from long range, which was rifled into the roof of the net with undoubted class and nonchalant effort, proved to be the winning goal and was enough to mathematically ensure Manchester City’s qualification for the quarter-finals of the competition.
“It was a very difficult game,” said Shaw afterwards. “The most important thing is qualifying and that’s what we’ve done. We have the experience and quality in the team and we’re used to these atmospheres.”
Gareth Taylor’s team have looked well on course for the knockout stages ever since their opened their group-stage campaign with a headline-grabbing victory over the defending champions Barcelona, but the 2-1 victory in the Swedish capital – added to their home win over Hammarby in the reverse fixture – saw them get the job done with two group matches to spare.
Shaw’s winning goal was of the highest calibre and was her 12th goal of the season in all competitions. At the other end, Manchester City was indebted to the England goalkeeper Khiara Keating for three top-drawer saves to keep the home side at bay, in front of the raucous home fans.
Most fans at the Stockholm Arena were well-behaved and the upside of such ardent home support was a key factor in the second half as they spurred Hammarby to their equaliser and created a terrific atmosphere for the most part – the likes of which rarely heard in this competition.
Bayern tops Group C with 10 points; Arsenal has six followed by Juventus (3) and Vålerenga (1).
Man City responded to its first loss of the season, 2-0 at Chelsea in the Women’s Super League on Saturday.
Still without injured star Vivianne Miedema, Shaw took charge, proving her scoring instincts after half an hour.
The forward scored from inside the penalty area with a deflected shot that flew over goalkeeper Anna Tamminen to frustrate more than 20,000 noisy fans at the Stockholm Arena in the Swedish capital.
Ellen Wangerheim equalized soon after the interval from close range to rejuvenate the crowd but Shaw struck again to restore the lead just minutes later.
This time, she delivered a powerful right-footed finish from the edge of the area.
Bayern dominated possession but could not translate it into goals until the 75th minute. It had to rely on substitute Jovana Damnjanovi´c, who gave the visitors a late lead after connecting on a pass from Giulia Gwinn.
The Norwegians, who have retained their domestic title, equalized in the 88th on Elise Thorsnes’ header following a corner.
Pernille Harder, who found the back of the net five times for Bayern in the previous three games, could not do it again and was substituted.
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