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7 min: Shaw breaks away on the right and crosses the ball into the box. Jayde Riviere clears the ball away expertly.
Tom Garry
The away supporters are making all the noise in the early stages here. A blue sky has emerged above our heads all of a sudden and the league leaders are hoping for another sky blue day of celebration on their march towards their first title since 2016. ‘City, City, the best team in the land and all the world’ is their chant.
3 min: It’s all Manchester City at the moment. Manchester United give the ball away carelessly and Miedema capitalises on the mistake. She slips ball in for Aoba Fujino who drives into the box but the Asian Cup winner drags her shot wide.
1 min: Manchester City have started on the front foot. Kerstin Casparij crosses the ball in from the right and the Manchester United defenders fail to clear their lines. Vivianne Miedema connects with the loose ball and stings the hands of Phallon Tullis-Joyce with a fierce effort.
Kick off
Manchester United get us under way, kicking from left to right.
Manchester United will need to stop in form Khadija Shaw. The Jamaica international is the league’s top scorer with 18 goals in 18 games, after scoring the WSL’s quickest hat-trick ever in Manchester City’s 5-2 win over Spurs.
Manchester United manager Mark Skinner believes his side can still win the title.
The aim is if we can beat City, you cut the gap [at the top] as well. Nobody is out of it.
Manchester derbies are always huge games and today is no different.
Manchester City are runaway leaders in the WSL with an eight point gap between themselves and their neighbours. A win today would almost certainly wrap things up as Andrée Jeglertz’s side need eight points to win the title.
Manchester United are looking for revenge after their 3-0 defeat in the reverse fixture. Mark Skinner’s side are technically still in the title race but a win today is probably more important for their Champions League qualification, with only three points separating second place and fourth place.
Team news
Manchester United: Tullis-Joyce, Le Tissier, Lundkvist, Park, Malard, Awujo, Riviere, Naalsund, Hinata, Turner, Schüller
Subs: Middleton-Patel, Rendell, George, Anderson, Rolfo, Drury
Manchester City: Yamashita, Rose, Knaak, Greenwood, Casparij, Coffey, Hasegawa, Hemp, Fujino, Miedema, Shaw
Subs: Keating, Combs, Fowler, Kerolin, Ouahabi, Blindkilde Brown, Lohmann, Beney, Prior
Hello and welcome to minute-by-minute coverage of the Manchester derby at 1:30pm (GMT). I’ll be providing you with updates over the next few hours. Send me an email with your thoughts.
Preamble
Xaymaca will be along shortly. In the meantime, here’s what the Manchester City head coach, Andree Jeglertz, had to say before his league-leading side’s short trip to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United in the derby.
These games live their own lives. Because a derby in this city is always going to get 100% energised players from both teams at the beginning. It almost doesn’t matter what tempo you start as your opponent will be ready. These games aren’t determined by 15, 20 minutes. Definitely the longer the game goes, it can be a challenge but it’s how the game turns out and what happens. Definitely in the beginning both teams will be 100% focused and energised, they really want to get three points in this game.”
Manchester City won November’s derby 3-0, with goals from Rebecca Knaak, Khadija Shaw and Lauren Hemp. United are looking to bounce back from a 3-2 first-leg defeat against Bayern Munich in the Champions League in midweek. Their head coach, Marc Skinner had this to say:
City are top of the league for a reason but we will take that challenge on. Once you accept that challenge, you can rise to a new level.
And here’s Tom Garry’s preview of a WSL weekend full of derby clashes.
