Vivianne Miedema starred at Villa Park to help end Manchester City’s losing streak. They beat Aston Villa 4-2 in the early kick off to move up to second in the Barclays WSL table.
The Action
Spectators at Villa Park were treated to a goal-fest in the weekend’s early Barclays WSL fixture. Both clubs were in different states of flux coming into this encounter. For Aston Villa, it was Shaun Goater’s final game in charge as interim Head Coach with the announcement mid-week that Natalia Arroyo had been appointed to the permanent role. Manchester City, meanwhile, are still recovering from their injury crisis and were looking for their first win in three league fixtures, having seen their title chase suffer a serious blow in recent weeks.
Aston Villa took advantage of City’s defensive fragilty early on with their wide forwards and the pace of Chasity Grant up front stretching the sinews of the visitors’ back-line. They got off to the perfect start when a pacy attack down the right saw Sarah Mayling play in Grant. She shrugged off Aleixandri before breaking into the box to finish superbly past Ayaka Yamashita.
Villa had City on the ropes and had opportunities to consolidate their lead but a series of errors at the back slowly allowed the visitors back into proceedings. The equaliser came from one such mistake when Danielle Turner passed the ball straight to Vivianne Miedema who made no mistake in turning her effort home. The Dutch forward had her second soon after, this time producing a world class curling finish that nestled into the top corner to give her team the lead going into the break.
The hosts thought they had dragged themselves back into the game when Laia Aleixandri turned Kirsty Hanson’s delivery into her own net within a minute of the restart. City moved through the gears once more, however, to ensure they would not go home empty-handed again. Mary Fowler produced a wonder finish from distance to restore the vistors’ lead before a sweeping forward move from back-to-front, started and ended by Jess Park, made sure of a much needed victory for Gareth Taylor’s side.
Stand Out Moment
Vivianne Miedema’s second strike was the pick of the bunch on an afternoon full of goals of the highest quality. The combination of her foresight and technique is what made the end product so special – the turn to work space away from Villa’s defence outside the box; the skill to get the curl on the finish to send it into the top corner far from the grasp of Sabrina D’Angelo. It is certainly one to watch on repeat!
Stop what you are doing and watch this strike from Vivianne Miedema 🤯 pic.twitter.com/FbWpApnf8x
— Sky Sports WSL (@SkySportsWSL) January 25, 2025
Stand Out Performance
If anyone needed any convincing that Vivianne Miedema has very much still got it, they just need to watch her performance against Aston Villa. With Manchester City under pressure in the first half and falling behind, the Dutch forward took the game by the scruff of the neck. Playing in the number 9 role in the continued absence of Bunny Shaw, she scored twice in seven minutes to turn the trajectory of the game on its head and give City the upper hand going in at the break. It was a vintage performance from Miedema and the fact that she is not even at her best yet will strike fear into her opponents.
Quote of the Day
I am actually just happy to be back out there and I am taking all of the small wins. I felt this sharp probably before this all (ACL injury) happened. I gave myself the time to come back properly and I hope we can see the benefits in the rest of the season.
Vivianne Miedema, Manchester City
Teams
ASTON VILLA
Sabrina D’Angelo; Sarah Mayling, Anna Patten, Danielle Turner, Maz Pacheco; Jordan Nobbs, Jill Baijings; Adriana Leon, Rachel Daly (c), Kirsty Hanson; Chasity Grant
Subs: Katelin Talbert; Noelle Maritz; Gabi Nunes; Lucy Parker; Katie Robinson; Ebony Salmon; Miri Taylor; Paula Tomás
Manager: Shaun Goater
MANCHESTER CITY
Ayaka Yamashita; Kerstin Casparij, Laia Aleixandri (c), Rebecca Knaak, Leila Ouahabi; Jess Park, Yui Hasegawa, Jill Roord; Aoba Fujino, Vivianne Miedema, Mary Fowler
Subs: Eve Annets; Laura Blindkilde Brown; Kerolin; Naomi Layzell; Lily Murphy; Aemu Oyama; Gracie Prior; Bunny Shaw
Manager: Gareth Taylor
