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Football

Everton suffers fourth defeat of the season, Manchester City seals tight 2-1 victory

Everton fell to Manchester City 2-1 in front of another sold-out Walton Hall Park on Saturday, their fourth defeat of the season.

The visitors came in Merseyside on the back of five straight triumphs, but they had to work exceptionally hard to extend that run against Brian Sorensen’s side, who will be disappointed not to have taken at least a point.

The away team started the brightest, and goalkeeper Emily Ramsey was brought into action within the first minute, making a wonderful sprawling save to deny former Toffee Chloe Kelly, who sneaked unnoticed into the penalty area.

The visitors capitalised on that early attempt to seize control and saw plenty of the ball in the first 10 minutes, but the Blues defended effectively and limited Gareth Taylor’s side to few clear-cut chances.

Everton were able to create lucrative turnovers inside the centre of the pitch as the visitors struggled to break down Sorensen’s squad.

Aurora Galli dispossessed City’s Yui Hasegawa before making a hard driving run at the defence and firing a strike towards goal that zipped just wide of the post.

Shortly after the half-hour mark, though, the visitors broke through when Khadija Shaw escaped the Everton offside trap and went one-on-one with Ramsey, who attempted to narrow the angle down. Shaw chose to assist Julie Blakstad, who sent the ball into an empty net to give City the lead.

The boisterous home crowd rallied behind the Blues, who pressed for a quick reaction, which arrived only eight minutes later when City failed to deal with Elise Stenevik’s corner, allowing Rikke Sevecke to take advantage and head home a deserved equaliser.

With their tails up, the Blues nearly completed a quick-fire turnaround just one minute later when Katja Snoeijs hit a sweet half-volley from the edge of the box, however, the effort was well saved by former Everton keeper Sandy MacIver.   

At the break Sorensen shuffled the pack, with Aggie Beever-Jones replacing Karen Holmgaard, however, it was the visitors who started the brighter of the two sides and again, just like in the first half, Ramsey was called into action early as she got down well to stop a low driven effort from Shaw.   

Just two minutes later though the City striker finally got the better of the Everton shot-stopper, tapping home Laura Coombs’ initial effort that struck off the post as Shaw restored a lead for the visitors.  

The game then opened up with both teams exchanging chances, yet it was City who went closest to extending their lead, with a heroic goal-line block from Sevecke denying Coombs a second of the match.   

With a little over 25 minutes remaining, Sorensen made further changes as Gio and Clare Wheeler were introduced in place of Galli and Hanna Bennison.   

Their impact on the team was nearly instantaneous as good play saw the ball worked out to Beever-Jones who drove down the left flank before cutting in and firing a fierce effort towards goal that was blocked for a corner.   

Pushing hard for an equaliser and approaching the final ten minutes of the match, Sorensen made a final attacking change as Leonie Maier replaced Elise Stenevik.   

But despite growing home pressure, the visitors managed to hold onto their slender lead and the Blues were forced to come away from the tight contest empty handed.  

Kajal S

Kajal S

kajal

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