Tabitha Chawinga, Manchester City's narrow East Midlands win and why Lyon are not invincible - your women's football roundup
It was another jam-packed programme in the women’s game over the last seven days, with Champions League qualifiers taking place as clubs vied for places in this season’s group stage and domestic fixtures occurring as teams looked to finish this part of the campaign on a high note before the latest international break.
There was no shortage of stories wherever fans looked, and this newsletter will once again bring you the best of them, with the usual mix of analysis points, external article links and a podcast to ensure that you have all you need to stay up to date with everything that has been going on.
3 key talking points….
Tabitha Chawinga continues to shine at PSG
When PSG lost Kadidiatou Diani to rivals Lyon in the summer, there were many who felt that her goals and overall attacking threat would be difficult to replace. However, through some positional experimenting and some new arrivals, it does seem that they have managed to find a solution that works for them, with new arrival Tabitha Chawinga coming in on a season-long loan from Wuhan Jianghan University and instantly enabling PSG to ask the same questions of their opponents, and more of them.
“It’s about scoring, assisting and helping the team to win. In football, you have wins, draws and losses, but for me, I came here for us to try our best, as a team, to win many games.”
Tabitha Chawinga, quoted by Osasu Obayiuwana in The Guardian, after joining PSG in the summer.
What Chawinga does so well is that she offers a very direct attacking threat, in that she makes runs behind opposing defences that create gaps behind her for teammates to exploit, and it was her pace that gave so many opponents a torrid time in Serie A last season, when she was on loan at Inter Milan, and demonstrated what she can bring to matches.
When looking back at PSG’s second qualifying round second leg win against Manchester United in the Champions League last week, there is little doubt that she was the key instigator in their creative and positive attacking play, with her taking opponents out of the way and allowing goal threats like Lieke Martens-van Leer to drop into holes and to test their luck, and both of the Dutch forward’s goals came as a result of the Malawi international’s clever movement and off-the-ball contributions.
https://twitter.com/EZU4ever/status/1717189886304809097
With Martens-van Leer becoming less of a winger and more of a creative midfielder since moving to Paris, PSG have needed to find a player who can allow her to really focus on that aspect of her play without also trying to make the same runs as she might have done previously. Chawinga clearly fits the part and could well be one of the signings of the summer for that reason.
Manchester City scrap for win but continue their fine start
Those who watched Manchester City’s top-of-the-table WSL clash against Leicester City at the weekend will agree that it was far from a pretty match, with both sides showing why they are where they are and why neither should be underestimated as the WSL season goes on.
When watching both play, it is clear that each has a really solid game plan, with a few details here and there that let them down at times, but a general quality and ambition present that shows how they are both desperate to achieve something this season. For Manchester City, what gave them the edge was having a little bit extra on the day in terms of overall player squad quality, but Leicester should not be disheartened by the result and have still made a barnstorming start to a season that many felt that they would struggle in.
It was a significant win for Manchester City, with the King Power Stadium not being a place in which they have found things easy historically. Last season, they struggled in the first half before making tactical changes in the second to allow Chloe Kelly to cut inside more, and so they have always needed to have a clear game plan in order to win in the East Midlands.
On this occasion, it was the way that Khadija Shaw dropped back to draw the central defenders out of position and to allow Kelly and Mary Fowler to make runs through the middle that allowed them to secure the three points.
https://twitter.com/amandavsilva/status/1715769592251875596
There is no denying that their goal did have an element of luck in it, given that it came as a result of a shot from Kelly squirming under goalkeeper Janina Leitzig, but they did perhaps deserve it on the day as they were marginally the better team. All in all, it was a result that demonstrated the quality and depth that they now have and their ability to scrap for wins but to secure them, which will be vital if they are to maintain their early title challenge.
Lyon continue their strong start – but Reims show that they are not unbeatable
Whilst history will indicate that Lyon’s trip to Reims ended in a 5-1 win for the former, making it appear that it was another comfortable victory for them, those who witnessed the game will know that it was far from that. Instead, Lyon had to work hard for their goals, with Reims frustrating them for as long as they could.
The home side’s game plan was clear to see from the early stages, with them looking to sit back and soak up pressure before hitting Lyon on the counterattack as soon as they regained the ball, and it was a plan that did give them some success as there were plenty of moments when they had Lyon on the back foot and under pressure.
In the end though, despite some positive passages of play, the home side ended up with nothing to show for their efforts which they will be disappointed about, and it really came down to Lyon’s attacking quality and the variety of ways that they can break teams down when they need to change things up. Reims should perhaps take it as a compliment that they did stay in the game for as long as they did.
Again, it seems like this was a fairly straightforward win for Lyon, but they needed to show all of their quality to get it and were far from perfect, with plenty of loose passes and a mistake from goalkeeper Laura Benkarth gifting Reims a goal and an increased hope of taking something from the match.
In short, it will give the rest of the league encouragement that there are chinks in their armour and that the season may not be as processional as some perhaps expected it to be.
Read all about it….
Ideas for Champions League reforms - there has been a lot of debate in the last week over just what needs to happen to make sure that continental competition in Europe is the best possible product that it can be. However, finding the right solution is not easy, and Charlotte Harpur has detailed the pros and cons of each option in this article for The Athletic.
Brazilian dominance in the Copa Libertadores - for those who haven’t kept up with the Copa Libertadores over the last few weeks, the final saw Corinthians defeat country rivals Palmeiras, but questions are already being asked by players about how the competition can be developed and improved, as Júlia Belas Trindade details for The Guardian.
How FA Cup prize money is benefitting clubs at the bottom of the pyramid - whilst there has been talk of late about financial matters in the WSL and Championship, this really interesting article by Rich Laverty on his Substack page, Women’s Football Chronicles, looks at how those smaller teams are using the money that they have so far been awarded from their FA Cup games so far, and some of the comments in the piece really drive home how much those teams rely on these forms of income to allow them to survive. A highly-recommended read.
Lend me your ears….
A Tale of Two Cities - in this bumper edition of The Women’s Football Podcast, there is discussion over last week’s Champions League results and Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner’s post-match comments regarding the tournament’s format, as well as a full dissection of the weekend’s WSL and Championship action, a chat with Rugby Borough and thoughts on Ali Krieger’s career, Jamaica’s strike and how England could do in their upcoming Nations League games. Something for everyone, no matter what you follow in the women’s game.
That’s all for now - back next week!!