City reach League Cup quarters with professional Forest win

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Manchester City Women

·22. November 2025

City reach League Cup quarters with professional Forest win

Manchester City qualified for the Subway League Cup quarter-finals as Group A winners with a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest.

Grace Clinton gave us the lead when she finished off an excellent team move with Lauren Hemp then doubling our advantage before the break after reacting quickest to a loose ball in the Forest area.

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Andrée Jeglertz’s side hit the woodwork three times in the second 45 as we looked to extend our advantage but had to settle for a two-goal victory against our battling WSL 2 opponents.

It means City sign off for the international break unbeaten in 11 matches, and with our name in the hat for Tuesday’s League Cup quarter-final and semi-final draw.

What happened

City came into our final Group A fixture knowing a point would be enough to qualify for the last eight, and we started strongly in the torrential East Midlands rain.

Hemp saw an early effort tipped wide by Emily Batty before flashing another effort just wide of the mark on the half hour mark after excellent build-up play from Shaw, but the opener would follow soon after.

It was Clinton who grabbed it, starting and finishing an excellent team move which involved a deft backheel assist from Shaw into the path of the midfielder, who confidently stroked home.

Forest were far from out of the game though, with Eartha Cumings making a fine save low to her right to deny Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah from distance soon after.

Clinton’s goal had sprung both teams to life, with Batty denying both Shaw and Coombs in impressive style after a defensive error, but number two would follow from the resultant corner.

Rebecca Knaak met Yui Hasegawa’s corner with her header coming back off the post and into the path of Hemp, who tapped home from all of one yard.

Forest went close to halving the deficit when substitute Nahikari Garcia crashed an effort against the post early in the second half.

But City never looked likely to surrender our advantage with Laura Coombs and Shaw both striking the woodwork in quick succession just past the hour mark.

Iman Beney was the final player to strike the post late on when she met an incisive Sydney Lohmann ball, but the job was done before the break with the visitors running out 2-0 winners.

Job Done

A professional performance from City, and a third clean sheet in four matches.

We came into the game as the clear favourites, but it’s clear to see why Nottingham Forest have enjoyed a strong start to their WSL 2 campaign – they were well organised and had plenty of pace to burn in forward areas.

Like our fixture against Newcastle, this could’ve been a bit of a banana skin, but City were clinical and saw out a deserved win with relative ease.

The Engine Room

Andrée Jeglertz made four changes from our Manchester derby win the previous weekend, with two of those coming in the midfield as Clinton and Lohmann started at the City Ground.

Alongside Yui Hasegawa, our midfield trident were key to the victory, with Clinton handing us the lead with a clever run and well-taken finish.

Lohmann played deeper but did an excellent job in breaking up play and getting City moving again from deep against a tenacious Forest side.

Shaking off early season injuries, our two summer signings looked sharp at the City Ground.