LONDON — Manchester City made the most of a late first-half collapse by Manchester United to score twice just before the break as they secured a 3-0 derby win that put them four points clear of second-placed Chelsea in the Women’s Super League.
Defender Rebecca Knaak headed City into the lead in the 26th minute but it was United’s collapse just before halftime and an inability to get shots on target that put paid to any ambitions they might have had of winning the hotly-contested derby.
Khadija Shaw netted for City in the 43rd minute with a typical poacher’s effort from Kerstin Casparij’s low cross, and things went from bad to worse for the visitors in stoppage time as an attempt to play out from the back went badly wrong, allowing Lauren Hemp to thump home a third.
United’s best effort came from a former City player when summer signing Jess Park hit the outside of a post, but that was as close as they came as their hosts moved to 24 points after nine games, Reuters reported.
In contrast, it was a result that signalled back-to-back WSL defeats for Marc Skinner’s side for the first time since May 2024, leaving them seven points off the league leaders.
Their ability to juggle domestic and European football with a thin squad has been hotly discussed and it always felt like this was the week that would truly test this capability. Unfortunately for the visitors, they looked fatigued, the historic win against PSG clearly having taken a toll.
The United manager was not ready to give up their title challenge but admitted that they needed to strengthen.
“We deserved it. We gave City those goals,” he told BBC Sport. “It wasn’t like they dominated us; that’s the scary thing.”
“We’ll see at the end of the season,” he continued. “I still think you can catch them. I don’t see anything exceptional with them … What we need to do is use the winter window to recruit the people we need to help to support this team.”
Skinner had freshened things up with a handful of changes. Ella Toone, Elisabeth Terland, Dominique Janssen and Leah Galton all added energy, although the dropping of the in-form Melvine Malard to the bench raised a few eyebrows.
Manchester City, in contrast, has no such scheduling worries. Jeglertz made one change with Lauren Hemp making her first start since recovering from injury.
The storm clouds started to gather for United from the start. This was a show of strength from City whose dynamic attack played with and pulled the visitors apart with a sublime first half performance in which they scored three in 21 minutes.
