Elisabeth Terland scored in the 89th minute to earn Manchester United a 1-1 Women's Super League derby draw with Manchester City at Leigh Sports Village on Sunday evening — ending the champions' perfect start to the season and knocking them off top spot.
City had won all six of their opening league games, and for most of the second half they looked set to make it seven. Instead, as Reuters reported, Terland's late leveller means Andree Jeglertz's side drop points for the first time this season and fall behind Chelsea on goal difference at the summit.
United had the better of a tense derby
This was no smash-and-grab. United, under Eva Olid, were the side pushing for the opener for long spells. Lauren Hemp brought an early save from Phallon Tullis-Joyce and Aoba Fujino flashed a shot wide for City, but the clearest first-half chance fell to the hosts: Jess Park played in Andrea Medina after 39 minutes, the left-back squared for Terland in front of goal, and the Norwegian made a poor connection that Ayaka Yamashita collected.
Terland went close again ten minutes after the break, breaking beyond Alex Greenwood only to shoot straight at Yamashita, and Park then clipped the City crossbar from 20 yards on the hour. United had done almost everything right — except score.
Shaw looked to have won it on her century
Khadija Shaw had been heckled by the home fans and marked tightly by Maya Le Tissier in the first half, but great strikers only need one opening. Tullis-Joyce first denied her with a fine stop after she raced clear, and United did not heed the warning.
On 66 minutes, on her 100th WSL appearance, Shaw took Mary Fowler's pass with her back to goal, turned Dominique Janssen and drilled the ball through the defender's legs into the far corner. It was, as Sky Sports noted in its report, a goal against the run of play — her 91st in the WSL and her seventh consecutive league game on the scoresheet.
City should have finished it off late on, Grace Clinton seeing an effort cleared off the line by Le Tissier. That clearance proved to be the turning point of the evening.
Terland makes Shaw pay for a half-clearance
With a minute of normal time left, Le Tissier launched a deep ball into the City box. Shaw, back helping her defence, could only half-clear it — and the ball fell straight to Terland, who drilled it home first time to spark wild celebrations among the home supporters.
The draw leaves both Manchester clubs on the move in different ways: City and Chelsea are level on 19 points, with Chelsea top on goal difference after their 3-1 comeback win at Crystal Palace earlier in the day; London City Lionesses are third on 16, and United sit fourth on 11. Elsewhere on Sunday, Liverpool drew 2-2 with London City thanks to a stoppage-time strike from Jana Fernandez Velasco, Aston Villa held on to beat Everton 3-2 after leading 3-0, and Birmingham City beat bottom side Charlton Athletic 1-0 — Charlton's seventh straight defeat.
The result adds another twist to a WSL season that is already delivering storylines across the division, from the title race at the top to the crisis at Arsenal Women that Beyond The Final Whistle examined in its report on Mariona Caldentey and the Gunners' injury problems.
So what? The title race is suddenly wide open
City's perfect record was beginning to look like a procession. It is over now, and the psychological shift matters: Chelsea, who came from behind to win at Palace, end the weekend on top, and every other contender has seen that Jeglertz's side can be rattled when a team presses them and keeps believing to the final minute.
For United, a point against the champions is a statement of their own. Olid's side outplayed City for stretches, hit the bar, created the better chances and still found a way back after Shaw's sucker punch. If they can turn that level of performance into wins against the sides around them, fourth place will be a floor, not a ceiling. The wider growth of the women's game — underlined by U.S. Soccer's new Crest Cup plans covered on this site — only raises the stakes of derbies like this one.
Beyond the Final Whistle: This is the result the WSL title race needed. City are still the team to beat, but Terland's leveller proved their aura of inevitability was just that — an aura. United deserved their point, Chelsea deserve top spot tonight, and a title race that looked closed in October is suddenly, gloriously open. Was this United growing into contenders, or simply City having an off night at the worst possible moment?
