Manchester United Women 5-0 Aston Villa: Red Devils continue title charge with Villa rout

Manchester United Women continued their Women’s Super League title push by thrashing Aston Villa in front of a record crowd at Old Trafford.

Katie Zelem opened the scoring inside the first 15 minutes, with goals from Leah Galton, Alessia Russo, Ona Batlle and substitute Rachel Williams securing a memorable win for the Red Devils.

Carla Ward’s Villans showed plenty of fight and character during the match, but their questionable defensive structure ultimately let them down.

Story of the match

The opening exchanges were tight, with neither side able to stamp their authority on the match. In the 10th minute, Alisha Lehmann had the chance to play a seemingly easy ball across the Manchester United box to set up a tap-in for Rachel Daly, but the Swiss winger

shanked it into the arms of Mary Earps.

Villa were made to rue their error just three minutes later when Zelem fired the hosts into the lead from close range. Returning goalkeeper Hannah Hampton was caught flat-footed as she parried a shot from Russo straight into the path of Zelem, despite it looking fairly simple to catch the ball.

Galton doubled United’s advantage before the 30-minute mark, latching onto a good through ball from Russo to cap off a slick move from Marc Skinner’s side. It was no less than the hosts deserved, who dominated possession and stretched Villa’s narrow system to exploit the space centrally.

Villa had their chances to get back into the game later in the half, especially from young winger Freya Gregory. The former Leicester City loanee latched onto a ball from Lehmann ten minutes before half time, but her first touch let her down and Earps was able to scramble

across to make the save.

Lehmann did have the ball in the net before the break after she bundled home a rebound from Gregory’s shot, but the linesman flagged offside. It was a decent attacking showing from Villa, but their defensive shortcomings let them down.

Their narrow defensive structure came back to bite them shortly after the restart, with Russo grabbing a deserved goal. Ella Toone sliced Villa’s defence apart with an excellent ball across goal, finding her Lionesses co-star in acres of space to tap home.

Batlle made it four with a thunderous effort coming off the crossbar and the far post before going in. Again, there were question marks over Villa’s defensive structure, with Kenza Dali leaving a gaping hole in the defence for Batlle to exploit.

Williams wrapped up the win in stoppage time from less than a yard out after Hampton dashed out wide and failed to secure the ball.

The score line was perhaps a bit harsh on Aston Villa who showed great character and played their heart out, but they ultimately had no answer to an imperious Manchester United team.

Player of the match

There are plenty of candidates for this and all of them could stake a reasonable claim. Russo took her goal well and had a hand in all the first three goals, Parris pulled Villa apart all game and Galton looked sharp all game.

However, Ella Toone was comfortably better than all of them, even without a goal. The Lionesses star showed off her full range of passing with a Kevin De Bruyne-esque display and Villa simply could not handle her.