West Ham United women's team 1-1 Manchester City
Barclays Women's Super League, Chigwell Construction Stadium, Wednesday 5 March, 7pm GMT
Manuela Paví scored a 91st-minute equaliser to grab West Ham United women’s team a well-earned 1-1 draw at home to Manchester City on Wednesday night.
It looked like substitute Bunny Shaw’s goal with ten minutes to go was going to be a late dagger into Hammers hearts, but up stepped Colombia international Pavi, who curled an inch-perfect strike into the bottom-right corner in second-half stoppage time to send east London into raptures.
Rehanne Skinner’s side had the better of the first-half opportunities, going closest through Seraina Piubel five minutes before the break, while Riko Ueki and Shelina Zadorsky also unleashed attempts to put the hosts ahead.
The second half saw the opposition grow into the contest and they found their opener after Laura Wienroither struck the bar, but the women’s team never know when they’re beaten and conjured up an equaliser to maintain their superb run of form in Dagenham.
The Hammers made a bright start to proceedings, similar to how they did on Sunday, forcing the opposition backline into making mistakes with their intensity.
Right full-back Anouk Denton was key to the press, and she won possession back before marauding forward down the wing, but her cross was too high for Riko Ueki.
Maintaining their promising start, Verena Hanshaw and Katrina Gorry both had sights at goal, but were sent over the crossbar.
A lot of the first half was like cat and mouse as City enjoyed possession, but knowing the Hammers were waiting to pounce. Apart from two blocked shots in quick succession, the visitors hadn’t threatened Szemik’s goal. That was until 36 minutes when Lily Murphy drove down the left before releasing a curling shot from the edge of the box, but the effort was easy for West Ham’s Poland international to hold.
The best chance of the first period fell to the hosts five minutes before the break as Piubel burst into the box before striking low and hard into the bottom-left corner, however, Ayaka Yamashita got down well to tip the ball around the post.
Ueki had time to try her luck before the interval as she latched onto Gorry’s inswinging delivery from deep, but her header was straight at the City shot-stopper.
Looking to keep up her side’s attacking prowess, Skinner sent on livewire Paví at the break, in place of Shekiera Martinez. The Colombia international found herself in the final third instantly after Piubel’s lay-off, but the forward was halted by a last-ditch tackle.
A quiet second half sprung into life just after the hour mark as it looked for all the world City were about to break the deadlock. A rare mistake at the back from Eva Nyström played Jill Roord through down the right. The City No10 squared the ball to Murphy whose close-range effort was tipped away expertly by Szemik.
After Denton shot straight at Yamashita, City sent on top-scorer Shaw in the hope of turning the screw on the contest. The striker was immediately in the thick of the action as she fired low at Szemik before unleashing an acrobatic effort that the Hammers goalkeeper caught with ease.
On came a wave of City pressure and Gareth Taylor’s side struck the bar from a set-piece with 20 minutes remaining as Wienroither flicked a delivery onto the upright from inside the six-yard box.
And unfortunately, the Hammers’ resolve was broken with ten minutes of normal time left to play as Shaw latched onto a Vivianne Miedema flick-on before firing into the bottom-left corner from close range.
West Ham heads could have so easily dropped with that late sucker punch, but they dug deep and found a late leveller through Paví, who was released by Ueki’s expert back-heel and found the bottom corner with an acute, curling strike.
West Ham United: Szemik, Denton, Nyström (Sáez 73), Tysiak, Zadorsky (Ademiluyi 57), Hanshaw, Gorry © (Brynjarsdóttir 79), Siren, Martinez (Paví 46), Piubel, Ueki
Subs not used: M.Walsh (GK), Smith, Mengwen, Bergman Lundin, Harries
Goal: Paví 90+1
Manchester City: Yamashita, Aleixandri ©, Fowler, Roord (Miedema 77), Wienroither, Kerolin (Coombs 72), Park, Casparij (Ouahabi 46), Hasegawa, Prior, Murphy (Shaw 67)
Subs not used: Annets (GK), Keating (GK), Layzell, Oyama, Davies
Goal: Shaw 80
Referee: Grace Lowe
Attendance: 1,267
