The latest leg of Manchester City’s victory lap took them to Old Trafford and they did not simply show Manchester United why they are going to become the Women’s Super League champions. They tore them apart in the process.
The away side’s symbolic 3-0 win at the home of their embarrassed neighbours demonstrated their vast superiority, and perhaps the only surprising thing was that they did not score more than Vivianne Miedema’s two headers and Kerstin Casparij’s far-post finish from a Lauren Hemp cross. It could easily have been five or six, with Hemp hitting the bar before a disallowed Rebecca Knaak goal, which left everybody in the stadium confused, in a first half when the visitors carved open the home defence with ease.
City have certainly been helped domestically by not playing in the Champions League this season and the extra midweek rest; this match sandwiched in between the two legs of Manchester United’s quarter-final against Bayern Munich. Yet, even with fresher legs than a tired United, it was not supposed to be this easy. It was not supposed to look like there was such a wide chasm between the two teams.
It is now most certainly a matter of when, not if, City will win the title. This most satisfying of victories for Andrée Jeglertz’s side put them 11 points clear at the top, and needing a maximum of five points from their remaining three league matches - all of which are against teams in the bottom four - to clinch their first league trophy in a decade.
