Manchester City secured their place in the Champions League knockout round with two group matches remaining after Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw, who appeared to be hit by an object, scored both goals in a 2-1 win over Hammarby Women .
Gareth Taylor's side secured a place in the quarter-finals by maintaining their 100 percent record in the competition in Stockholm, where 20,248 spectators witnessed the match – a record attendance for a women's club match in Sweden.
City needed just a point to progress but produced a repeat of last week's 2-0 victory in the reverse fixture, where second-half efforts from Laura Blindkilde Brown and Aoba Fujino got the job done.
Shaw overtook Georgia Stanway and Janine Beckie to become City's all-time top scorer in the league. She scored in both halves in Stockholm to take her career total to seven in the competition.
Ellen Wangerheim canceled out Shaw's opener early in the second half, but Shaw restored City's lead in the 52nd minute and Khiara Keating made a number of important saves to wrap up the game for City.
City, needing just a point to ensure progress with two games remaining, responded well to Saturday's 2-0 defeat to Chelsea, which ended their unbeaten start to the Women's Super League, as they maintained their perfect start in the Champions League.
But to achieve that they had to overcome both a difficult start to the match and a strong response from the hosts after falling behind. Roared by another huge crowd at the Tele2 Arena, Hammarby started brightly.
Former City midfielder Julie Blakstad proved a particularly difficult customer as she pulled the strings, with Cathinka Tandberg firing a shot wide early on.
Wangerheim then came in front of Leila Ouahabi and reached Blakstad's cross, but shot wide from close range.
City had only half-chances in the opening half hour, but Shaw broke the deadlock with a deflected strike in the 32nd minute.
The striker was shown a yellow card by referee Silvia Gasperotti for excessive celebration, despite appearing to have been hit by an object thrown by some of the home fans.
Blakstad shot just wide as Hammarby tried to equalize before half-time, but instead they had to wait until three minutes after the restart.
Keating couldn't stretch to cut out Blakstad's cross, and Wangerheim was ready at the back post to turn in the cross.
Parity lasted just four minutes, however, as Jess Park played in Shaw, who fired into the top corner from the edge of the penalty area, her twelfth goal in thirteen games in all competitions this season.
No sooner had City regained the lead than Hammarby came close to equalizing, but thanks to an excellent double save from Keating, who denied Tandberg and then sprang to his feet to keep out an even better effort from Blakstad in the follow-up.
City had late opportunities to finish the match. Shaw's cross found Aoba Fujino's point with ten minutes to go, but the Japanese striker's shot was pushed aside for a corner.
At the other end, Keating had to make another big save to keep out Anna Josendal's effort after a corner, diving to the right to stop a powerful attack, and City held on for another three-point win.
What now?
A number of City players will now leave to join their respective countries ahead of the international break. Taylor's side will return to action in the WSL on December 8 with a match against Leicester at the Joie Stadium
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