Liverpool Shocks Manchester City with Comeback Victory at Joie Stadium
Manchester City’s title defence began with a warning flare, and it came in red.
On a night when the WSL champions should have been easing into their rhythm, they instead looked rattled and exposed, undone 2-1 by a Liverpool side that refused to back off and smelled panic every time the ball went near the home penalty area.
City actually struck first. And it was classic City.
Alex Greenwood stepped out from the back with authority, slicing through Liverpool’s first line with a sharp touch and pass that opened the pitch. Carlotta Wamser took over, her first touch clean, her head up, and the ball rolled perfectly into the path of Lauren Hemp. One touch, then a precise finish into the corner. Clinical. Brilliant football. Manchester City 1-0 Liverpool, and it felt like the champions had settled.
Liverpool didn’t agree.
Instead of retreating, the visitors pushed higher. The press tightened, the runs in behind grew braver, and City’s composure began to fray. Alice Bergström led the charge, constantly pinning Wamser deep, stretching the game and forcing City’s back line to turn and face their own goal.
The reward came quickly.
A loose moment under pressure, a Liverpool press that refused to die, and the ball broke for Bergström. She still had plenty to do, the goalkeeper racing out to narrow the angle, but the finish was ice-cold. One chance, one swing, and Liverpool were level at 1-1. Against the run of play? Maybe. Against the pattern of Liverpool’s aggression? Not at all.
From there, the champions wobbled.
Fuka Nagano stepped up from midfield and drove a fierce effort from range, testing Ayaka Yamashita even if the shot flew straight at her. Vivien Endemann, lively since her summer arrival, buzzed between the lines, linking play and stretching City in ways they clearly did not enjoy.
At the other end, Khadija Shaw tried to reassert control. She brought down a long ball from the goalkeeper and lashed at goal, but her effort flew high and harmless. It was a snapshot of City’s attacking rhythm: present, but not precise enough to calm the growing anxiety at the back.
Then the pressure finally snapped them.
Liverpool worked the ball wide again, another cross slung into a box that suddenly looked like a problem area for City rather than a place of command. Cornelia Kapocs attacked it first, disrupting everything, turning a routine clearance into chaos. The ball dropped loose, and Endemann pounced.
From close range, she drilled her shot with conviction. Yamashita got a hand to it, but not enough; the ball skidded on and crept in at the far post. Manchester City 1-2 Liverpool, and the away end erupted.
On the touchline, Andrée Jeglertz will have seen his worst pre-season fears play out in real time. He had spoken about tightening up City’s defending. What he watched instead was a back line that looked uneasy, slow to react, and vulnerable every time Liverpool dared to ask a question in and around the box.
“Shambolic defending,” came the verdict from the press seats at Joie Stadium. Hard to argue. City hesitated on clearances, dithered on the ball, and allowed Liverpool’s forwards to swarm. When Wamser dallied in her own third and was dispossessed, it summed up the mood: uncertainty where there should have been authority.
Liverpool, by contrast, earned every inch of their lead. They committed players forward, hunted in packs, and forced errors from a side that usually suffocates opponents with its own control. Endemann’s goal, Bergström’s equaliser, Nagano’s ambition from distance – all of it pointed to a team that believed City could be rattled, and proved it.
By the closing stages of that spell, the champions looked anything but secure. The Joie Stadium crowd had seen this City side sweep teams aside with ease last season. On this evidence, the new campaign might be a far more searching examination of their nerve at the back – especially if more visitors arrive with Liverpool’s courage and intent.
