Manchester City overcome stubborn Sunderland in Conti Cup

Manchester City recorded their second victory in this season’s FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup with a 3-0 success against a well-drilled Sunderland side at The Academy Stadium this afternoon.

Not much was expected from second tier Sunderland as they faced the unenviable task of coming up against reigning FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup champions Manchester City. A side sitting second-bottom of the Barclays Women’s Championship table faced a team full of UEFA Women’s Champions League experience and international regulars.

It was always going to be a difficult task for Sunderland and that looked to be the case when Manchester City made the breakthrough inside the opening 10 minutes. A corner whipped in from the right found captain Steph Houghton whose deflected effort fortuitously fell to Hayley Raso less than six yards out. The Australian international had bags of time to compose herself and pick out Julie Blakstad for a simple tap-in into an unguarded net.

Sunderland frustrated Manchester City for much of the first half despite that early Blakstad goal and limited the blue half of Manchester to a couple of speculative efforts from distance. The Lady Black Cats could’ve drawn themselves level when captain Brianna Westrup produced a tremendous leap to get her head on a corner. She couldn’t get enough accuracy on her header however, and the ball went over the bar.

The visitors would’ve come out after the interval buoyed by their first half display and believing that they could even steal a result from the tie. Unfortunately for them, that was not to be the case.

The home side found their second goal early in the half when the ball broke kindly for Raso who drove into the Sunderland box before slotting her shot past visiting keeper Claudia Moan.

The game then threatened to run away from Melanie Reay’s side when Manchester City made it 3-0. A wonderful through ball from deep by Houghton picked out Khadija Shaw in behind the Sunderland back-line and the Jamaican international striker kept a cool head to place the ball beyond Moan and into the net.

Sunderland were able to stem the flow of goals coming down on them but Manchester City looked much more comfortable and created many more chances than they did in the opening period.

The Cityzens eventually came out 3-0 victors as they made it two wins from two in the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup group stage. As for Sunderland, it is now two defeats from their opening two ties in the competition while they are still to register a goal. However, fans of The Lady Black Cats will be optimistic for the remainder of the season, especially following that resolute first half display.