You cannot miss half a dozen big chances at Women’s Champions League level and expect to get away with it. That is the harsh lesson Manchester City learnt on Thursday against Paris Saint-Germain, who extended the English champions’ wait for their first win in Europe this season by striking late to secure a point at a disappointed Joie Stadium. City’s third draw from three Champions League games so far this season really ought to have been a victory.
Instead, their hopes of a top-four spot and with it automatic qualification for the quarter-finals are looking increasingly slim. They thought they had won the game through Khadija “Bunny” Shaw’s 85th-minute penalty, but conceding sparked PSG into life and they snatched a point with a scrappy equaliser three minutes later as their substitute Tara Elimbi Gilbert found the net from close range. How, therefore, should we look upon City’s season?
Are they the team that is unbeaten in all competitions? Or the team without a win in Europe? Both ring true, and although they are still likely to progress to the knockout stages, they will have been hugely frustrated with their profligacy.
The result is not what we wanted, of course. Maybe we should kill the game earlier,” the City manager, Andrée Jeglertz, reflected. We deserved more, I think, but that’s how it is in the Champions League.
When you dominate games and you don’t score, the opponent will take their chances and that’s what they did.” Draws away to Bayern Munich and at home against Real Madrid in their first two games were certainly not poor results, against strong opposition and with theoretically kinder fixtures to come, so there was no need to panic, but City’s 11th-placed position in the table, only one above the final qualification spot, before kick-off will nonetheless have looked a little concerning to some of their supporters. They ended the night 10th. Jeglertz was positive about their chances: “We got drawn against six teams and we have played the three toughest of them, I think, so now we have three games that we have the opportunity, again, to get the points we need to qualify for the next round.
So that’s our goal and nothing has changed.” Nonetheless, this latest draw was a blow. PSG sought to frustrate City in the first half, and succeeded after riding out an early storm. Shaw’s header dropped wide at the far post from Aoba Fujino’s third-minute cross, as the home side made a bright start but were unable to score while on top.
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