The visitors fly forward again, this time through Hanson who gets to the left side of the box and her cross along the face of goal is inches away from Daly who would've surely tapped into the net. Slight let off but certainly a warning sign for City.
Villa break on the counter through Grant who skips past Ouahabi's challenge before our defender produces a professional foul to stop her progressing. The resulting free-kick finds Patten whose header is caught by Yamashita.
City have started brightly here with our pressing giving Villa little time on the ball. This sees the ball the played out to Fujino and her cross into a dangerous area evades the sky blue shirts inside the box.
We're under way at the Joie Stadium...
COME ON CITYYYYYYYY 💙
The time has come to PUSH THE BUTTON 🔘
There's only one way to signal kick-off is fast approaching and the big blue button has been pressed with the players moments away from taking to the field.
🕺💃
The best of the action from our 3-0 win over Leicester in our previous outing!
On Casparij making her 100th appearance...
Big congrats to her because she's a very important person in our team. She has done very good for us since I came and she's of course a leader on and off the field. Especially with her performances in how she's acting in both attacking and defending, so I'm happy for that.
On Greenwood making the bench...
Alex is our captain and just having her back, she's been working hard for a couple of weeks now and she's back so she's bringing more energy to the group but also her quality.
On the challenge of Aston Villa...
They played a good game against Liverpool a couple of days ago and of course they come with confidence after winning that game. But at the same time, we're also a team with confidence right now and I think we have good opportunities but we need to be very alert in all actions to get the win.
On the final home game in 2025...
For us we haven't thought that much about it, but I think the key thing for us is to continue to perform well. If we take each game as a new action and new moment I think we have opportunities for that. Everything is about getting a great performance at the game today and then we can finish it off with a win, hopefully.
City's players are on the field as our pre-match preparations begin!
The rain has started to fall at the Joie Stadium which could make for interesting conditions by the time kick-off has arrived 🌧️
CommentaryReporting by Sam Cox @mancity