The Women's Super League (WSL) emerged from hibernation as Manchester United scored six goals in a frenetic 90 minutes, including a hat-trick from Ella Toone, to beat their opponents 4-2. First league win. Elsewhere, Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 5-0 for Renee Sleges' first win in charge, while Chelsea also beat West Ham United 5-5. Tottenham Hotspur take useful three points with 1-0 win over Leicester City, Aston Villa denied victory against Everton as Viatricki Sarri's late equalizer canceled out Rachel Daly's opener as Liverpool took all three points against Brighton with fewer points. A more comfortable 2-1 win.
It was an unstable weekend for La Liga's top three, with Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid both dropping points. After taking the lead against Levante, Atletico Madrid was tied before the start and ended up drawing 1-1, while Real Madrid lost 0-1 at home to Eibar. Leaders Barcelona managed to maintain a 100% record with a 2-0 win over Athletic Club, but it wasn't until the 90th minute that Alexia Putras finally found the breakthrough and Vicky Lopez quickly added a second .
In Serie A, Roma beat Juventus 3-1 to reignite their title hopes, but Severini's penalty against Sassuolo was only enough to earn Fiorentina a point. Finally, in France, Lyon got back to winning ways with a less than memorable game, beating PSG 2-0 at the Parc des Princes.
Keating's nightmare costs city
Manchester City goalkeeper Chiara Keating endured a difficult night at the Etihad Stadium, with several costly errors denying United a 4-2 win and further denting City's hopes of competing for the WSL title.
Manchester United striker Ella Toone will win plaudits for her hat-trick, but the City goalkeeper was at fault in two of the errors: the first was her short shot to Leila Ouahabi The pass was blocked and Thun made it 3-0, then seconds later. In the second half, her clearance was blocked by Elizabeth Trand, and Thune quickly scored to make it 4-2. Keating's frustration was evident throughout the game as she roared in frustration, threw her arms in the air, and then collapsed to the ground, needing repeated comfort from her teammates.
This isn't the first time Keating has faced adversity. Mistakes against Arsenal last season and a costly mistake against Tottenham in the FA Cup semi-final left her in tears. Each time, however, she showed remarkable resilience to regain her place as Manchester City's first-choice goalkeeper and earn a call-up to the England squad.
Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor, who initially made summer signing Ayaka Yamashita his first choice, expressed confidence in Keating's ability to recover. "She's proven before (she can bounce back) and she'll do it again. We never put the blame in either direction, so I think she'll be fine within a few days," he said. "We win, lose and draw together as a team. There is no personal blame. I think she feels worse." - EK
Chelsea and Arsenal start 2025 with five goals each
Chelsea and Arsenal continued their strong recent form, scoring a combined 10 goals and keeping clean sheets to keep the pressure on in the title race.
Arsenal returned to Meadow Park and faced newly promoted Crystal Palace at home, winning 5-0. The game marked a milestone for Slagers, who has been officially appointed as the club's permanent manager after leading the team on an interim basis since October. Under her leadership, the Gunners ended 2024 with an 11-game unbeaten run, and they have now continued that momentum into the second half of the season. The defeat at Manchester City leaves the north London club in second place with 24 points and 25 goals, the second-highest total in the league so far.
WSL leaders Chelsea followed suit with a 5-0 win over West Ham United and maintained head coach Sonia Bompasto's unbeaten run, becoming the first WSL team to go 11 consecutive games without defeat. .
Goals from Catarina Macario, Erin Cuthbert, Aggie Beaver-Jones and Sandy Baltimore put the Hammers in trouble before Amber Tysiak inadvertently scored Score an own goal. The result marked Chelsea's biggest away win since September, taking their tally to 36 goals. Bompasto rested key players Guero Reiten and Johanna Retin-Kanelid, opting to rotate her squad ahead of next weekend's much-anticipated London derby against Arsenal, and for the rest of the league , things are not looking good. ——EK
Eibar's shock performance against Madrid
With midweek's Super Cup semi-final against Real Sociedad looming, Real Madrid coach Alberto Toril has opted to make slight changes to his squad for Saturday's La Liga match against Eibar, who have lost their first 14 games of the season. Only 3 wins were achieved in the competition.
But what won't be on Toril's bingo card was 22-year-old Guatemala international Andrea Alvarez's header from Maher with less than half an hour left. Maëlle Lakar stole the ball and fired it into the unmarked Mylène Chavas' net from 30 yards.
Madrid have made great progress this season, and the team's formation and form have shown progress in philosophy, but their talented attackers have often struggled to gel together. The game against Eibar was a familiar story as Real tried to get into risky positions and let individual qualities shine, but as time went on Eibar played with more organization and team spirit, with everyone helping Maria · Miralles remains in good form - winning a clean sheet. --SL
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eight. Roma lost their first game against Juventus. Despite two draws denting their perfect record, Juventus are still having an easy time in Serie A this season, or so until Sunday's trip to the capital. Roma are still struggling a bit this season, but goals from Giulia Dragoni, Manuela Giuliano and Elena Linari showed more of the quality of this team over the past two editions of Italy Performance in the Championship. Juventus have suffered regular defeats in the Champions League this season and they will hope that this defeat is only temporary. But for much of the Roma game they have not looked like a team on their way to the inevitable title, with just four points now separating them from second-placed Inter Milan.
seven. Progress in the central region has been slow. Aston Villa will be left frustrated after the visitors sent Everton back into action on Saturday night with three points. But that 1-1 draw aside, things are looking much better for Villa, who are yet to taste defeat under Sean Gott since taking charge on an interim basis four games ago. Since then, Sean Gott has made the team look more composed and balanced.
six. Lyon inflicted pain on PSG. The Ligue 1 title is now decided via the play-offs at the end of the season, which does take away from the all-too-familiar clash between PSG and Lyon - PSG will have to endure an extremely poor second Half a season out of the top four/playoffs - but things are still a bit raw for France's second-best team. Lyon are still a long way from their peak form after being knocked out of the Coupe de France last weekend by lowly Fleury, but they are where they need to be. The defeat dropped PSG to third place, behind Paris FC, and their opponents now appear to be teams further away from the capital.
five. Barcelona left very late. Like Real Madrid, Barcelona entered midweek's Super Cup semi-finals as a weaker team against Athletic Club and struggled to break through throughout the game. Of course, just when the Basque side looked set to secure a sensational draw, Putras' goal in the 90th minute cost the home team a deserved point, and "golden boy" Lopez added four in stoppage time. A brilliant shot turned the situation around minutes later. The main takeaway is that Barcelona have crossed the line, just like they did against Sevilla in September and Valencia in December, but it's certainly not the first time we've seen the team do this season under Pereiro. Poor performance under Meu.
Four. Florence was completely boiling. Fiorentina have started the season strongly but have been severely inconsistent over the past two months, with another draw at the weekend viola Extending their winless streak to five games. It would be easy to lament the absences of Agnese Bonfantini (suspension) and Vero Boquete (calf injury), but the team looks flat going forward, lacking inspiration and lacking depth.
three. Liverpool remained lax in front of goal. Liverpool's victory over Brighton may have ended a four-game losing streak for Matt Beard's side, but there is still a big question mark as to where the goal came from. Liverpool have scored the fourth-highest number of goals so far this season and their winner was an own-goal from Jorelyn Carabali. While the Reds can attack and are delighted to have Olivia Smith on the ball - with the 20-year-old taking her tally for the season to three after scoring the opener on Saturday - The Reds still have a serious drought on the field that seems to indicate more than just shooting practice is needed.
two. Atletico Madrid further lost ground in the top two positions. Levante Badalona may be Barcelona's forgotten team, but they are better than their 17 points from 15 games would suggest and it is this ability to build momentum that has held back independent teams. It shouldn't come as a surprise, therefore, that Levante picked up a point when they visited Atletico at the weekend, as they ended the match as the stronger of the two teams, leaving the visitors with just one goal in their last six games. Won a league game. Atletico are playing increasingly uninspired football under Victor Martin and there are no excuses.
one. Spurs had a bit of luck. It hasn't been the best season for Tottenham so far, and it's fair to say they were a bit lucky to take all three points against an injury-plagued Leicester City at the weekend. Janina Leitzig's own goal sealed the match-winner just four minutes later, but Spurs managed just two shots on target in the 90 minutes, none of which were on target. The wider question is why the pieces of work for Robert Villaham's side still haven't fallen into place this season, when there is no doubt about the manager's personal qualities. Yet, halfway through the WSL season, the offense itself still isn't working, with the team hitting discordant notes and showing little sign that they'll find their natural rhythm and harmony. --SL