For a long time, the Women’s Champions League has longed for the sight of a packed, enthusiastic, all-standing section of home supporters cheering their team on from behind the home goal. However, on Thursday, Manchester City experienced one of the negative aspects of such intense support when their striker Khadija Shaw was hit by a coin thrown from the section occupied by the most fervent Hammarby fans.
Such incidents have been remarkably uncommon in Europe’s premier women’s club competition, but replays revealed that Shaw was struck on the body and recoiled as the object was hurled towards her from behind the goal while she was celebrating scoring Manchester City’s opening goal with a heavily deflected shot that looped into the far corner. Shaw, the top scorer in England’s Women’s Super League this season with seven goals, was apparently seen as the villain by the home side’s ultras. She raised her arms in front of the Swedish club’s fans, received a yellow card for her celebration, and seemed puzzled by that decision given she had been hit by an object.
But Shaw would have the final say as her second goal, a powerfully struck long-range shot that was rifled into the roof of the net with undeniable class and casual effort, proved to be the winning goal and mathematically secured Manchester City’s qualification for the quarter-finals of the competition. Gareth Taylor’s team has looked on course for the knockout stages ever since their opening group-stage campaign with a headline-grabbing victory over the defending champions Barcelona, but Thursday’s 2-1 victory in the Swedish capital—added to their home win over Hammarby in the reverse fixture—saw them complete the task with two group matches remaining.
Shaw’s winning goal was of the highest quality and was her 12th goal of the season in all competitions. At the other end, Manchester City relied on the England goalkeeper Khiara Keating for three outstanding saves to keep the home side at bay, in front of the boisterous home fans. Most fans at the Stockholm Arena were well-behaved, and the positive aspect of such fervent home support was a key factor in the second half as they spurred Hammarby to their equalizer and created a terrific atmosphere for the most part—the likes of which are rarely heard in this competition.
To their credit, the hosts created a cacophony of noise throughout and their players responded with a performance of high energy and attacking intent. They leveled when Ellen Wangerheim tucked in at the far post after a slip from the Manchester City youngster Gracie Prior, while the visitors were appealing for a foul on Laura Blindkilde Brown, who received her first senior England call-up on Tuesday. The home side had also come very close in the first half through the former Manchester City winger Julie Blakstad, after the Norway international Cathinka Tandberg had bounced a low shot wide. More than 15,000 fans were reported to have bought tickets, but it looked like more were inside the Stockholm Arena. About 400 of the Swedish club’s supporters had made the trip to Manchester for the previous fixture. On Thursday, a handful of Manchester City fans braved temperatures of minus six degrees Celsius as their team learned a new meaning for the phrase ‘a difficult place to go’.
The result for Manchester City was even more impressive given the continued absence through injury of the in-form winger Lauren Hemp, who underwent surgery on a knee problem last week; the Netherlands forward Vivianne Miedema, also sidelined after minor knee surgery; and the Spain defender Laia Aleixandri, among others. Taylor was only able to name six substitutes compared to Hammarby’s 10, and only four of Manchester City’s available substitutes were outfield players. The win saw them bounce back immediately after their first defeat of the season last Sunday, away at the WSL leaders, Chelsea, who hold a 100% record this term and joined Manchester City in the knockout stages of the Champions League with their win over Celtic on Wednesday.
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