In-form Toone leads Man Utd to second in WSL following Brighton victory

Manchester United moved up to second place in the Women's Super League after they were on their way to a 3-0 win over Brighton in Leigh Sports Village due to two early goals.

Ella Toone, the hat trick hero from their victory in the Manchester Derby, and Hinata Miyazawa were on goal in the first eleven minutes and sent Marc Skinner's team on the road.

The Red Devils sealed the victory in the 69th minute via Celin Bizet Ildhusoy, making them above Rivals Manchester City and seven points behind leader Chelsea.

United was the lead in the second minute when Elisabeth Terland marked her 50th WSL performance with an assist, sliding in Toone, which curled the ball into the right-hand corner.

The Red Devils kept dominating the opening battles and were rewarded when Miyazawa shot the ball past Sophie Baggaley after a short free kick.

Bizet Ildhusoy completed the victory after the break by brilliantly recording the substitute Maisie Symonds from Brighton before conjuring up the ball over Baggaley.

United has now won their last four games in the WSL, which marks their longest winning streak in the competition since between March and October in 2023 (eight games).

In the meantime, Olivia Holdt came to the VBS Community Stadium of the Bank and scored a free kick in the 95th minute, which resulted in a 3-2 victory over London's rival Crystal Palace.

Bethany England scored twice in nine minutes in the first half to give the visitors control, but Palace, which had lost the last four WSL matches in a row, responded after the break.

The Eagles halved the backlog three minutes after the break when Katie Stem brilliantly turned the cross of Molly-Mae Sharpe past Lize Kop and gave the team of Laura Kaminski Hoop.

Stem was then just after the hour supplier of the Leveller, with her inch-perfect pass collected by Ashleigh Weerden, who scored her first WSL goal with a simple finish.

It seemed that the dramatic match would come to an end, until Jessica Naz was brought down on the edge of the penalty area, while Holdt got up and the ball curled into the net.

There was also a second competition victory this season for the humble Leicester City, after they came from a backlog and defeated Liverpool and had four points ahead of Palace at the bottom.

Olivia Smith took the lead in the third minute after she had attacked Leicester keeper Janina Leitzig, who saw her ball return to the Reds striker and ended up in the goal.

But Matt Beard's team only held the lead for 14 minutes when Sophie Howard brought Ruby Mace's set-piece towards Janice Cayman, who struck the ball past Teagan Micah.

The Foxes threatened when Julie Thibaud came across a free kick with a header that ended up in the side net, but the most important moment came five minutes before the break.

Sam Tierney brilliantly managed to break into the Liverpool penalty area before throwing the ball at Missy Goodwin, whose meager attempted the line and sealed a crucial Foxes overinning.

In addition, Leicester ended their scoreless series against the Reds, after they had not succeeded in winning the last three WSL matches against them since a 4-0 win in April 2023.

West Ham resisted a wave of printing from Everton to take a six-point lead over the relegation zone with a 2-0 win over the Toffees in the Chigwell Construction Stadium.

The visitors of Brian Sorensen were frustrated throughout the game and noted a total of expected goals (XG) of 2.19 from their 17 attempts, but none of them was on goal.

Shekiera Martinez scored the opener within ten minutes after a strong start of the home team, who saw early hits from Kelly Gago and Katja Snoeijs saved by Courtney Brosnan.

And after she had delivered the corner for the opening goal, Viviane Asseyi was on the stroke of half -time for the second goal, which Everton could not recover.

Everton remains 10th in the WSL, where their last defeat ended an unbeaten series of four games against West Ham in the competition.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *