(Reuters) – Rachel Daly scored twice on her debut as Aston Villa pulled off a thrilling 4-3 win over Manchester City in their opening game of the Women’s Super League season at Villa Park on Sunday, their first win against City in the competition.
Signed from NWSL side Houston Dash earlier this month, England’s Daly set up Alisha Lehmann for the game’s opening goal in the 22nd minute before snapping up a loose ball and curling it home for the second ten minutes later.
City struck back with Laura Coombs scoring a brace either side of a Khadija Shaw strike to put themselves in the lead in the second half, but Villa made it 3-3 through Kenza Dali in the 58th minute.
That set the scene for Daly, who started for England at left back in every game of their victorious Euro 2022 campaign but was deployed here as a striker, to pounce as City keeper Ellie Roebuck spilled the ball into her path for a simple finish in the 76th minute.
On Friday Arsenal got the season off to a flying start with a 4-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion, while Manchester United repeated that result with a 4-0 thrashing of Reading on Saturday.
Champions Chelsea get their campaign underway when they take on newly-promoted Liverpool later on Sunday.
(Reporting by Phil O’Connor; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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