Tottenham Hotspur 1-5 Manchester City: Clinton scores on debut as City run rampant | OneFootball

Grace Clinton marked her Manchester City debut with a goal as Andrée Jeglertz’s side handed Tottenham a crushing 5-1 defeat in their Women’s Super League clash at Brisbane Road.

Aoba Fujino opened the scoring, followed by Vivianne Miedema and Kerstin Casparij giving City a commanding 3-0 lead at the break. Clinton came on for Fujino and netted within 15 minutes, making an immediate impact.

Spurs briefly responded through Olivia Holdt, who struck a spectacular long-range effort past Khiara Keating, but Laura Coombs sealed the emphatic victory with City’s fifth goal.

As it happened

Spurs, who had kept clean sheets in their opening two league games, were undone by defensive errors from the start. Even the early injury to Lauren Hemp did little to disrupt City’s rhythm. Fujino fired in from the edge of the box less than a minute after Hemp’s exit, setting the tone for a difficult night for Spurs goalkeeper Lize Kop.

The visitors doubled their scoreline 20 minutes later, when a perfectly placed corner from Alex Greenwood found Miedema, who flicked it over the line. And, just before the break, Casparij made it three. After a run from Kerolin, who had come on to replace Hemp, she set herself up for the shot, but saw the ball deflected by Toko Koga, finding Casparij’s head and effectively putting the game to bed before the half-time whistle had been blown.

The second half followed a similar pattern: City continued creating chances, while the home side looked to defend where possible. Fujino was awarded a penalty after Clare Hunt sent her flying inside the box, but Kop went from zero to hero for just a minute, when she saved Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s spot-kick. The goalkeeper’s brief redemption, however, did little to mask Spurs’ struggles at the back.

Clinton was brought on in the 65th minute, to make her debut for Manchester City, and she only needed 15 minutes to make her mark. She made her trademark late run into the penalty area before stroking it home. However, the home crowd did have something to cheer for when Holdt scored an incredible long-range goal.

To finish off the evening, Coombs added a fifth goal to City’s tally for the night. Clinton set herself up for another shot, but saw her effort deflected off of Hunt for Coombs to finish.

The visitors dominated with 24 shots, of which 10 were on target, and five different players on the scoresheet. It was a team performance full of positives to build on ahead of their upcoming fixtures next week.

Manchester City will host Everton in the League Cup on Wednesday at 19:00 BST [20:00 CET] at the Joie Stadium, before welcoming London City Lionesses at 12:00 BST [13:00 CET] on the weekend. Tottenham Hotspur travel to Leicester City on the weekend after hosting Aston Villa in the League Cup on Wednesday evening.

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