Man City 4-0 Spurs (WSL) | Robert’s verdict
Fri 08 November 2024, 23:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
Robert Vilahamn felt it was difficult to respond after Khadija Shaw’s two early goals at Etihad Stadium as Manchester City went on to record a 4-0 win in the Barclays Women’s Super League on Friday evening.
It took 24 seconds for Shaw to break the deadlock before she doubled her tally inside the opening quarter of the game. We responded well for the rest of the first half and looked to make an impact after the break, but we were rocked by a further two goals within in a minute.
Jill Roord fired home at the near post to add a third for City before Shaw wrapped up the hat-trick as she converted from close range, taking her tally to seven goals in seven games in the WSL this season.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY after the game, Robert said: “We gave the game away at the beginning – that’s the truth. It’s really hard to play Man City away, you have a game plan, a strategy but when you’re one-nil down after 20 seconds and then two-nil down after 14 minutes, it’s extremely hard to play good football and make a game of it.
“On the other hand, I feel the players tried hard after the second goal and the last 25 minutes of the first half was the best phase of the game, we created half chances and looked quite good. The second half, at the beginning of it, we tried to find a way of push forward and pressure them but also how much we needed to defend as well as they have so many good players.
“It was disappointing to concede the fourth directly after the third, that’s something we spoke about, trying to stay in the game, and then it’s mentally tough to play away after they have scored them goals.
“We needed to be perfect and, this evening, we weren’t perfect at all and that’s something we need to accept right now but we also need to make sure we learn from this and find ways to get better because we need to take steps with this squad to make sure we can compete in the long-term. We just need to look at this game, individually and tactically, to make sure we take learnings from that as we have a big game coming up.”
