Blue Girls Rout Villans
Bunny Shaw helped herself to four goals as Manchester City ended their 2025 WSL campaign in style by hitting six past Aston Villa. Jamaican striker Bunny Shaw was on fire, hitting four of the six with goals from Aoba Fujino and Viveanne Miedema sandwiched in between.
The match also saw a return to action for defender Alex Greenwood, back after an injury that has kept her out of the City side since October. But the day belong to Shaw, whose two first half goals put City firmly in command at the interval, then finished a wonderful day for the Blues with another double late on.
City went six points clear at the top of the WSL last weekend and any slip would give Chelsea a glimmer of hope as they continue to hunt the Blues down. Indeed, Chelsea’s 3-0 win at Brighton would have closed the gap, but City can now go into the winter break with a nice six-point cushion.
It wasn’t all plain sailing as the scoreline may suggest and the Blues took some time to get moving. Villa caused a scare in the City defence when Rachel Daly failed by inches to reach a superb cross by Kirsty Hanson. But City began to get into the game and Canadian keeper Sabrina D’angelo was forced to make a fine save from Shaw, after she almost gifted the striker an open attempt at goal. Attempting to clear her Lines, D’angelo literally passed the ball to Shaw but the striker couldn’t get her shot away, and moments later, saw D’Angelo parry her powerful shot over the bar.
City were knocking on the door and it was no surprise when they took the lead in the 37th minute. building patiently from the back, City worked the ball out on the left to Miedema, and her pinpoint cross was met by Shaw who guided it into the bottom corner.
It was her 99th goal for City and the century was beckoning. It would come on the stroke of half-time.
Yui Hasegawa, who really deserves a champions medal after her performances so far this season, robbed the ball in midfield and driver forward before releasing Shaw. The striker turned the defender and fired into the same corner as her first to give City clear daylight.
Lauren Hemp’s tenacity in midfield almost brought about a third for City straight from the restart. Taking the ball from two players, Hemp saw her vicious left-foot shot tipped around the post by D’angelo, who was clearly the busiest of the two keepers, and was later called upon to prevent Shaw from completing her treble.
But a third goal was on the cards and it should have come when Villa failed to clear their lines. Shaw muscled a Villa defender off the ball and Hemp charged forward. D’angelo managed to make a good save but Villa fluffed their lines and allowed City to win the ball back with ease. The ball came out to Shaw on the left, whose curling shot smacked into the post, the rebound was saved by D’angelo and Miedema hammered home, only to see the offside flag up.
It was a warning that Villa didn’t heed and when City broke down a Villa attack, there was only going to be one outcome. Miedema charged forward and played the perfect defence-splitting pass to Fujino. The Japanese star had support but chose to go alone and fired past D’angelo to make it 3-0.
Villa gave themselves hope in the 70th minute when Lucy Parker headed home from a Missy Bo Kearns corner, but that only served to fire the Blues up further.
Miedema made it 4-1 three minutes later when Shaw’s header across goal was mis-timed by Fujino, who just managed to stay on her feet and recovered quickly to pass the ball across the face of goal where the Dutch striker was waiting to tap home the easiest goal she will ever score at the Joie Stadium.
Shaw then took over, with another two goals, the first coming in the 84th minute to complete her hat-trick. Substitute Kerolin charged forward, took out two Villa players and released Shaw, who casually slotted past D’angelo to secure the match ball.
Four minutes into injury time, Shaw hit her 103rd goal for City to complete the rout. released on the left, Shaw crossed into the box and the ball was met by Grace Clinton, who steadied herself and fired a shot which looked destined for the bottom corner. Shaw, onside, flicked out a foot and made sure it found its target, then immediately apologised to the midfielder for taking her goal.
It’s highly unlikely that Clinton would take offence; given that City lost the title two seasons ago on goal difference, every goal will count as they try to stay ahead of the London champions, and stay on course for only their second WSL title.
Final score: Manchester City Women 6-1 Aston Villa Women
Category: General Sports
