City extend winning World Sevens streak with Ajax penalties triumph | OneFootball

City maintained our 100% record at the World Sevens Football tournament with a 6-5 penalties victory over Ajax.

The Blues had led 2-0 before the Dutch outfit fought back and scored twice which forced extra-time before a dramatic shootout where we held our nerve to collect the victory.

It means Nick Cushing’s side have won each of our first two Group 1 assignments after beating Rosengard in matchday one and edged closer to the knockout stages ahead of our meeting with Bayern Munich this evening.

City started quickly against the Swedish outfit but found chances hard to create against a resolute Ajax seven in the opening stages of matchday two with Kerolin Nicoli and Aoba Fujino seeing efforts blocked early on.

Khiara Keating was forced into action soon after when she saved Lotte Keukelaar’s effort from close range before we made them rue the missed opportunity when Kerolin Nicoli immediately darted into the opposition box before slotting low for the opener.

It was her third goal at the tournament and Fujino came close to extending our lead with a powerful effort that whistled just wide as the tempo of the game raised by a few notches.

This saw Jess Park see successive efforts come close with her second kissing the bottom of the post via a deflection.

Ajax showed they packed quality aplenty and grew into the fixture, carving out a few openings but were continually thwarted by Keating who was often quick off her line to smother the ball at the first sign of danger.

We held onto our slender advantage heading into half-time and crucially doubled the lead shortly after half-time when Park weaved into the box and colly dispatched into the bottom corner.

Ajax were handed a lifeline though with eight minutes remaining when Lily Yohannes was brought down inside the box by Keating and the youngster stepped up and fired the penalty home to half the deficit.

The Dutch outfit then pushed for an equaliser which they found on the cusp of full-time when a long ball up to Danique Noordman was flicked into the net by the Netherlands international.

That forced five minutes of extra-time where the team who scored first would win but neither could find the breakthrough and sudden-death penalties followed.

And City prevailed 6-5 in the shootout as Kerolin Nicoli (two), Coombs (two), Fujino and Park dispatched from the spot.

HOW WE LINED UP

Cushing named the same team who started our 4-0 win over Rosengard, but Mayzee Davies replaced Codie Thomas among the rolling substitutes.

City: Keating, Prior, Wienroither, Coombs, Fujino, Park, Kerolin Nicoli.

Substitutes: Annets, Layzell, Pritchard, Blindkilde Brown, Oyama, Davies, Murphy.

WHAT IT MEANS

The win means we have collected the maximum two points after the same number of games which puts us on the brink of the knockout stages.

If Bayern Munich beat Rosengard in this afternoon's other Group 1 match, we'll be through to the semi-finals regardless of our result against the German outfit.

WHAT'S NEXT

City conclude our group stage with a meeting with Bayern Munich today at 18:30 (UK).