Match report: Man City 1-1 Arsenal Women

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WHAT HAPPENED

There was late drama on Sunday night as Tobin Heath scored deep into stoppage time to salvage a 1-1 draw against Manchester City.

Jonas Eidevall’s side displayed plenty of promising play at the Academy Stadium - and our late goal was no less than we deserved for our character, fight and spirit throughout.

With Kim Little making her 250th appearance for the club and operating at the base of midfield, we took control of the game early on and pressed high up the field in numbers, regularly disrupting City’s build-up play.

Beth Mead had a chance to open the scoring after Khiara Keating misjudged the flight of a long ball, but our No 9 was quickly closed down and saw her goalbound effort blocked.

Shortly after Vivianne Miedema’s drilled effort was pushed away.

The return of Leah Williamson to our starting XI allowed us to continually play between the lines, but after going down once already in the first half, Eidevall opted to introduce Rafaelle Souza for her debut during the half-time interval.

We continued to push forward in numbers and following a fine pass by Souza, Mead eventually picked up the ball on the left wing and beat her marker with some fine footwork, before seeing her powerful strike pushed away by Keating.

The first goal of the evening would fall for the hosts, though, and in somewhat controversial fashion. After the ball deflected off the referee and into the path of a City player, Lauren Hemp broke forward on the counter and crossed for Khadija Shaw to finish from close range.

With the clock counting down and City holding their defensive shape deep into stoppage time, we stayed calm and with one last roll of the dice, the ball dropped for Tobin Heath inside the penalty area and she fired into the bottom corner, before rushing to celebrate with the travelling fans.

Big players step up in big moments - and Heath certainly delivered, as she’s done so many times before.