City end pre-season with convincing Durham win | OneFootball

Manchester City rounded off pre-season preparations with a 4-0 win over Durham at the Joie Stadium.

City took the lead just before the ten-minute mark when Vivianne Miedema stole a yard inside the area and headed in at the near post from a corner.

Miedema also played a huge role in our second midway through the first 45, finding Lily Murphy on the left flank with a clever feint away from her marker.

And the winger celebrated her contract extension earlier this week with a clinical curling effort into the far corner to double our advantage.

WATCH: Next Gen launch ‘exciting times’ for City, says Christiansen

City were starting to find our groove, with Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw denied by a smart save after some excellent build-up play down the right.

It was a similar story after the restart, with Shaw’s clever dummy from a Miedema pass releasing Kerstin Casparij, who fired across goal for number three before the hour mark.

Durham continued to battle, but the Blues went close to a fourth when substitutes Laura Coombs and Iman Beney were both denied from close-range as the game ticked into the final 20 minutes.

And it wouldn’t be long before City grabbed our fourth, though, with excellent work down the left between Laura Blindkilde Brown and Lauren Hemp seeing the latter float a dangerous ball into the far post.

WSL TICKETS NOW ON SALE

Coombs was there to meet it, smashing home to complete the scoring at the Joie Stadium.

There was further good news before the final whistle, though, as Risa Shimizu made her return from an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury as a late substitute.

The win follows a 4-0 victory over Nottingham Forest and a goalless draw with Manchester United ahead of our WSL opener at Chelsea on Friday 5 September.

Kick-off is set for 19:30 (UK), before our first home match of the campaign against Brighton on Friday 12 September.

How we lined up

City XI: Keating (Yamashita 46’), Casparij (Shimizu 86'), Rose (Ouahabi 75’), Greenwood (Wienroither 75’), Layzell (Prior 46’), Hasegawa (Coombs 63’), Lohmann, Miedema (Park 63’), Kerolin (Blindkilde Brown 63’), Shaw (Beney 63’), Murphy (Hemp 63’)

Unused substitutes: Cumings, Pritchard, Thomas

Andrée Jeglertz reaction

On City's performance:"Now we’re a little more ready. I thought we drove the game a little bit more, we were a bit hesitant on Tuesday, but I think we did a good game.

On the squad depth and quality:"We have a squad with a lot of good players, there’s competition in all positions, so that’s how you have success, when you have depth. They make my job more difficult.

On Risa Shimizu’s return:Of course, for a player like her [Rise] who’s training every day and working very hard to get back, she deserved to get on the field.

On our WSL opener against Chelsea:We have the time we have and we’ve done everything we’re supposed to do. On Friday, we will be ready.