Lauren Hemp Stars in Manchester City's 4-2 Victory Over Liverpool
Lauren Hemp struck in the first minute and the fifth of stoppage time, bookending a wild 4-2 win for Manchester City over Liverpool that kept the WSL champions perfect – but only after a serious scare at the Joie Stadium.
For 90 minutes, City’s long home winning run looked ready to crack. Liverpool led, rattled the champions, and forced Andrée Jeglertz’s side into a scrap rather than a showcase. Errors decided it. City simply punished more of them.
Hemp lights the fuse, Liverpool hit back
City flew out of the blocks. On 13 minutes, a slick, sweeping move sliced Liverpool open and ended at Hemp’s left boot. The England winger, without a league goal since November, arrived in stride and buried her finish to cap a flowing team attack. It felt like the start of a routine home win.
Liverpool tore up that script inside six minutes.
A defensive mix-up in the City back line gifted Alice Bergstrom the chance to level. She didn’t hesitate, drilling past Ayaka Yamashita to stun the champions and silence the early swagger.
The equaliser energised the visitors. They pressed higher, snapped into duels and forced City into mistakes. The pressure told just before the half-hour when Vivien Endemann, already influential, seized her moment. From close range she met a loose ball with a crisp volley that fizzed through Yamashita’s outstretched hand for 2-1. Liverpool’s turnaround was fully earned.
Endemann, a summer arrival from Wolfsburg, played like she had years of WSL experience, not just a handful of games. Alongside Beta Olsson and Bergstrom, she repeatedly troubled City’s back line and underlined why Liverpool’s recruitment has drawn praise.
Shaw drags City level
City, rattled, needed a response. Khadija “Bunny” Shaw provided it, as she so often does.
She had already smacked the post on 39 minutes as City chased a leveller. Deep into first-half stoppage time, Hemp cut inside and forced a save from Khiara Keating, but the former City goalkeeper spilled the ball. Shaw pounced from close range, stabbing home her fourth WSL goal of the season to make it 2-2.
The strike kept Shaw’s push for a third straight Golden Boot firmly on track and underlined again why retaining her this summer might be City’s smartest piece of business.
After the break, Shaw stayed central to everything City did. Keating had to tip one of her efforts over the bar on the hour, a reminder that the champions still carried a constant threat even as Liverpool matched their intensity.
Liverpool’s late collapse, City’s ruthless edge
As the clock ticked into the final minute of normal time, Liverpool looked set to take a point that would have said plenty about their progress. They had pressed better for long spells, made sharper choices on the ball and played with a conviction rarely seen from a side that finished 11th last season.
Then came the twist.
On 90 minutes, disaster struck for the visitors. A dangerous City delivery caused chaos and Reds captain Grace Fisk turned the ball into her own net, handing the hosts a 3-2 lead just as five minutes of added time went up. A horrible moment for a defender who had marshalled her back line well for most of the night.
Chasing an equaliser, Liverpool threw bodies forward. They overcommitted. City smelled blood.
With seconds left, Hemp exploded into space on the break, racing clear of a stretched Liverpool defence. One-on-one with former team-mate Keating, she had time to think – too much, by her own admission – before sliding the ball calmly past the goalkeeper to seal the points and her brace.
“I don’t usually score goals so it’s nice to get on the scoresheet for once,” she told Sky Sports afterwards, admitting that with so much time on that final chance she briefly wondered where to put it. She picked perfectly.
Champions’ mentality, contenders’ progress
Jeglertz praised his side’s mentality, stressing how City “never stop believing” even in a game where, by his own assessment, they “gave them two goals almost” and had to adjust on the fly to Liverpool’s tactical tweaks. City still carved out enough chances to score four and showed again why they sit five points clear at the top heading into the rest of the weekend’s fixtures.
Yet this night also belonged, in part, to Liverpool’s evolution.
Gareth Taylor’s team – reshaped, rebuilt and still carrying scars from last season’s injury-hit struggles – went toe-to-toe with the champions on their own ground. It took Liverpool 12 games to reach four points last year. They already have that tally now, and sit third.
Taylor admitted his side “just came up a bit shy” but insisted Liverpool were “us”, playing with the identity he wants. He pointed to the difference in depth – City able to roll on game-changers while Liverpool named two 16-year-olds on the bench – as a gap that still needs closing, but not one that feels insurmountable.
For long stretches, Liverpool pressed harder, looked braver and showed greater clarity in their attacking decisions. Late slips cost them, but the performance suggested a team that has put a brutal year behind it and is edging towards something more ambitious than simply surviving.
City march on, extending their record-equalling winning run at the Joie Stadium and tightening their grip on top spot. Liverpool leave empty-handed, but with a sharper question hanging over the rest of the league:
If this is how they look in September, what will they be by the time the title race hits its stride?
