Manchester Metropolis followers have been chanting Vivianne Miedema’s identify to the tune of ‘Mah Na Mah Na’, a music finest recognized for its use in The Muppets and The Benny Hill Present, halfway by the primary leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
However their summer time signing from Arsenal was on the bench. That was not an enormous shock given Miedema began in opposition to Chelsea of their 2-1 League Cup remaining defeat on Saturday, the primary of 4 back-to-back conferences between the groups. She just isn’t ready to play 4 a number of 90 minutes in 14 days.
Metropolis arrange of their standard 4-3-3 however modified personnel from the weekend. Jess Park stepped up into the No 10 position as a substitute of Miedema, and Mary Fowler, who additionally began on Saturday, shifted into the No 9 place instead of Khadija Shaw, who was sidelined with a muscle damage.
Fowler performed extra of a false 9 and dropped deeper to sew the play, combining nicely with Jill Roord. Though Metropolis had probabilities and Hannah Hampton was the busier of the 2 goalkeepers, they have been pressured to shoot from distance and barely challenged the Chelsea No 1. Metropolis’s first contact within the opposition field got here within the forty fourth minute.
Metropolis’s new interim head coach Nick Cushing, who changed Gareth Taylor following his sacking 10 days in the past, spoke to Miedema 10 minutes earlier than half-time, readying her to return on for the second half. The Netherlands worldwide instructed Cushing she “felt good” and had already recognized the areas to use.
Within the second half, Miedema, 28, led the road centrally whereas Fowler shuffled out to the left instead of teenager Lily Murphy, whereas Kerolin Nicoli stayed on the precise. At any time when Metropolis regained the ball, they seemed to hit Chelsea on the counter by way of Miedema and Kerolin.
You possibly can really feel a momentum shift contained in the Joie Stadium as Kerolin ran on the Chelsea defence. The Brazil worldwide received the nook which Chelsea solely cleared so far as Fowler on the sting of the field. Laia Aleixandri’s header from Fowler’s whipped supply was tipped onto the bar by Hampton however Miedema’s technically effective end put Metropolis 1-0 up within the sixtieth minute. Kerolin, who solely signed for Metropolis in January, was in Miedema’s ear.
“She all the time tells me I’m the most effective and superb,” a smiling Miedema instructed after the sport. “It’s nice for my very own confidence. We want gamers who hype one another as much as assist one another out.”
A minute earlier than, Chelsea supervisor Sonia Bompastor made a double substitution and took off Keira Walsh, whose minutes have been being managed having simply come again from damage. She additionally took off Lauren James. “When the sport just isn’t going the best way you need, you all the time attempt to do one thing totally different to deliver one thing else,” mentioned Bompastor. “Tonight I simply felt prefer it was the precise factor to do and it didn’t work.”
However when the sport was nonetheless poised at 0-0, taking part in away from dwelling, did Chelsea must twist?
They’d their second to equalise within the eightieth minute however Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s shot crashed in opposition to the bar. The sport had began to open up, which suited Kerolin’s pacy dribbling.
“That’s if you get her inside high quality,” mentioned Miedema.
Cushing added: “You’re not going to get the most effective of Kerolin by asking her to obtain it and cross it. She’s acquired to be confronted up, operating in behind and taking part in an actual attacking model. It’s important to embrace that as a result of to beat Chelsea it’s a must to discover a option to win.”
Kerstin Casparij’s scooped cross discovered Kerolin in behind and she or he saved going at Millie Vivid earlier than teeing up Miedema within the 88th minute. The previous Arsenal striker completed coolly together with her left foot to provide Metropolis a 2-0 cushion heading into subsequent week’s second leg at Stamford Bridge. In recent times, Miedema has typically performed deeper in a No 10 position however Cushing believes she must be near objective after which mix the precise gamers round her.
Metropolis are recognized for being a possession-based staff however underneath Taylor, former Metropolis striker Ellen White she discovered his model “irritating” because it was so “inflexible” and “structured”. On Wednesday, Metropolis confirmed they might be versatile, adapt to the personnel accessible and have alternative ways to play.
“It’s about evolving this staff right into a successful staff,” Cushing mentioned after the sport.
Cushing has introduced in one other assistant coach, Dan Fradley, to interchange Chad Gribble, Taylor’s former assistant who was let go, whereas persevering with to work with assistant coach Nicky Ajose and goalkeeping coach Diego Restrepo.
Fradley, Metropolis Soccer Group’s head of efficiency evaluation, labored with Cushing in Main League Soccer at their former membership New York Metropolis FC. Cushing has additionally bolstered his employees by including former England and Metropolis captain Steph Houghton, hoping to learn from her successful mentality and management.
Finally, Metropolis have been extra scientific in entrance of objective, compact in defence, performed ahead and hit on the counter on the proper moments. Against this, Bompastor criticised her staff’s lack of “need”, “effort” and “power” from the off, describing their efficiency as “somewhat bit sloppy”.
This was the primary time Chelsea have misplaced all season, the primary defeat of the Bompastor period. Metropolis stopped the reigning Girls’s Tremendous League (WSL) champions from setting a brand new report for the longest unbeaten streak by a WSL staff throughout all competitions, a statistic Bompastor mentioned she doesn’t care about.
“Being unbeaten is a pleasant factor but it surely doesn’t deliver a trophy,” she mentioned.
Cushing’s change in method posed Chelsea extra issues and he’ll change once more for the WSL sport on Sunday. However within the Champions League, it’s only half-time. The two-0 win offers Metropolis a number of confidence and Miedema spoke of the group’s togetherness however the end result doesn’t imply something but.
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Chelsea, Manchester Metropolis, UK Girls’s Soccer
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