Ramrod Ramirez sees off leaders Man City to put Chelsea top of WSL

Chelsea 2 v Man City 0

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Mayra Ramirez is a cross between Didier Drogba and Sam Kerr, and she displayed the best qualities of those Chelsea icons to propel Chelsea to the top of the WSL with a hard-fought, 2-0 win over leaders Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

The power of Drogba as evidenced when she shrugged off the challenge of Alanna Kennedy to leave the centre-back flat on the surface, the guile and subtlety of Kerr’s finishing saw the Columbian striker then coolly slot the ball home to open the score.

Guro Reiten then brilliantly finished off a period of pressure to double the score, to see off a disappointingly reticent City.

Both sides were undefeated, yet the onus was to try and win the game to set a marker on their title credentials.

It was the home side who eventually reached that target.

Chelsea leapfrog City to the top of the WSL and have a two-point lead and a game in hand as well.

The first 45 minutes were poor in technical output, even poorer in goal chances. The second saw nerves dominate quality again. But then Ramirez took centre stage and the game was over.

City started very well, keeping possession without making too much headway into the Chelsea area.

And it was the home side who had the first attack which resulted in a corner. From here, on five minutes, Millie Bright, at the far post managed to squeeze a header on target, but Ayaka Yamashita snaffled the effort.

It was quickly a game of City holding the ball with Chelsea looking to counter-attack.

On 20 minutes that scenario played out but it ended up with Johanna Rytting Kaneryd (Jojo) cutting the ball back to Mailka Hamano, who skied her edge of area shot I to the Shed.

Bizarrely Sandy Baltimore gifted Khadija Shaw the ball on 22 minutes, but the City striker screwed her effort wide of Hannah Hampton.

Maya Ramirez tried an adventurous 30 yarder on 24 minutes, which Yamashita gleefully snatched. Sjoeke joined the sky-high club on 26 minutes sending a Guro Reiten cutback even further in to the back of the Shed.

Lucy Bronze rescued the Blues on 27 minutes, when this time, Hamano gave a stupid back pass the was intercepted . But before Jill Roord could take full advantage, Bronze nipped in to snuff out the goal-scoring danger.

Shaw had a great chance to open the score with two minutes of the half remaining, but she headed wide from close range from a corner.

Nathalie Bjorn got a yellow card for pulling back Shaw as the cock ticked over to added time.

There were no changes by either side at half-time.

Alex Greenwood received a yellow card for pulling back Ramirez two minutes after the restart.

A lung-busting run by Ramirez which ended up as a corner, a glancing header by Bjorn showed Chelsea intent in the early phase of the second, half, but a clear goal-scoring opportunity continued to elude them.

City were also edging closer to goal, and another free header by Shaw on 54 minutes, which Hampton grabbed will have given them renewed confidence.

And then out o the Blue, on 75 minutes, Chelsea scored and it was that ramrod of a striker Ramirez.

Set up by Hamano, the Columbia striker bounced Alanna Kennedy onto the ground before facing Greenwood with a one on one.

She still had a lot to do, bit just as she got to the edge of the City area, a single touch took the ball away from Greenwood, Ramirez then slice the perfect right-footed daisy-cutter past Yamashita and I to the bottom corner of the net.

A couple of minute later and it was 2-0. some fierce Chelsea pressure saw the ball fed yo Reiten on the right edge of the City area.

She controlled the ball and the curled then goal-bound effort wide of the

Ramirez should have made it three soon after but took the ball too far wide.

To try and preserve the lead, Bompastor took off attacker Reiten and brought on defender Ashley Lawrence on 83 minutes.

And it worked. Not even six minutes of added time could alter the result.

Teams: Chelsea: Hampton, Bright, Nusken, Ramirez, Cuthbert, Reiten, Bjorn,Baltimore, Rytting Kaneryd (Jojo), Bronze, Hamano

Subs: Musovic, Macario, Lawrence, Perisset, Kaptein, Mpome, Jean-Francois, Bernabe, Beever-Jones

Man City: Yamashita, Greenwood, Fowler, Roord, Kennedy, Ouahabi, Park, Casparij, Fujino, Shaw, Hasegawa

S8bs: Keating, Startup, Coombs, Kelly, Blindkilde Brown, Prior, Thomas, Murphy, O’Carroll