Chelsea Women 2 – 1 Man City Women

Reigning Girls’s Tremendous League champions Chelsea started their defence with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over title rivals Manchester Metropolis.

On an entertaining opening night time – the place Chelsea launched their new £1m signing Alyssa Thompson earlier than kick-off – the Blues scored two slick objectives both facet of the break, related in nature, to safe Sonia Bompastor a record-breaking twentieth WSL win.

The Frenchwoman turns into the quickest supervisor within the competitors’s historical past to succeed in that complete, regardless of being pushed all the way in which by dogged Metropolis, who performed aggressively within the fashion of latest head coach Andree Jeglertz and compelled Niamh Charles into a clumsy personal objective which made for a nervy finish.

Earlier than that, Bunny Shaw had squandered a handful of probabilities, whereas Yui Hasegawa and Lily Murphy have been denied by Chelsea’s faultless goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, as Metropolis landed extra pictures on track and generated a greater xG worth than their hosts.

However impressively crafted strikes from Aggie Beever-Jones and Maika Hamano have been finally decisive, guaranteeing an ideal begin for the champions at Stamford Bridge – their bid for a seventh straight title is formally up and working.

And to make issues worse for Metropolis, who will really feel as in the event that they deserved a greater consequence, each Alex Greenwood and Lily Murphy have been misplaced to damage late on.