Manchester City Women 5-0 Aston Villa Women

Aston Villa Women lost 5-0 to Manchester  City on Saturday afternoon.

Caroline Weir, Georgia Stanway, Hayley Raso (2) and Lauren Hemp all netted in the second half having been frustrated by Villa in the opening 45 minutes.

The result is a gut-wrenching one for Villa after a promising first half display.

Carla Ward made one change from last weekend’s victory over Birmingham City.

Elisha N’Dow returned to the side to partner Anita Asante and Meaghan Sargeant in a back three, while Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah was named on the bench despite opening her account in claret & blue in midweek.

City saw plenty of the ball in the opening exchanges, but Villa got plenty of bodies in front of the ball to stifle Gareth Taylor’s side.

Hannah Hampton, meanwhile, got down well to save a speculative effort from Kiera Walsh.

After absorbing a sustained period of City pressure, Villa did manage a half-decent opening inside their opponents’ box.

After a neat give-and-go between Remi Allen and Ramona Petzelberger, the former played in Alisha Lehmann who looked to have a good sight of goal.

The Swiss international was adjudged to have been just offside, however, just as she was looking to pull the trigger from 15 yards out.

Despite frustrating their opponents for large parts, Villa did have Hampton to thank for keeping the score at 0-0.

The ‘keeper denied Ellen White superbly from point-blank range when it looked harder to miss.

And so Villa went into the break with spirits high having limited City for the majority of the first period, but those spirits were dampened within three minutes of the restart.

Weir, ever the livewire, shifted the ball onto her right foot inside the area before curling beyond Hampton.

Three minutes later and City were well in truly in control.

After a scramble in the area following a corner, Stanway bundled the ball in from a yard out to throw Villa’s gameplan out of the window.

City added further gloss to the scoreline inside the final 15 minutes when Hayley Raso (twice) and Lauren Hemp netted during a four-minute spell.

The final score won’t reflect Villa’s resolute first-half display, but Ward and co. witnessed first-hand just how ruthless the WSL can be.