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Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor has praised his side’s response to their shock defeat to Manchester United last time out in the Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL).
On Sunday, the Citizens were beaten by their bitter rivals in a six-goal thriller at the Etihad Stadium. Despite goals from Vivian Miedema and January signing Rebecca Knack, a hat-trick from Ella Toon and a first-half strike from Leah Galton saw the hosts lose 4–2.
Defeat ensued city Down the standings and back to fourth combined, Armory And Chelsea. They are now third and two points adrift of second place, but almost nine behind league leaders Chelsea with 11 matches played.
Despite the setback, City responded strongly in midweek against United in the Subway Women’s League Cup. They won the quarter-final encounter 2–1 at Leigh Sports Village to set up a semi-final meeting with Arsenal next month.
Speaking ahead of this weekend WSL In a meeting at Aston Villa, Taylor praised his players’ response to the defeat and their determination to put things right just three days later.
“This team has always shown that we fight until the end,” the manager told reporters during a press conference on Thursday afternoon. “When we suffer we always fight back.
“We tend not to let it affect us. Of course, it hurts, but we don’t let it affect us too much. It was a perfect game for us, playing our rivals again after Sunday and settling a few scores. .
“I thought there was a real determination from the players in that sense, especially the way we closed the game. We did really well.”
City have a golden opportunity to close the gap on their rivals this weekend when Arsenal and Chelsea go head-to-head at Stamford Bridge. United are also in action on Sunday against Brighton, who currently sit fifth in the table after a strong first half of the season.
Taylor stressed the importance of City getting back to winning ways in the league as they look to capitalize on potential dropped points elsewhere.
“We have to do it,” he added. “We have to really fight in this next WSL game and playing Villa at Villa is very tough. The scheduling is not very kind to us, the only game between us and Villa is on Saturday. They didn’t play in midweek, we have injury problems which will test the team a bit. is doing
“I liked what I saw last night in terms of determination and being able to fight and compete against physical players.”
