West Ham 2-3 Aston Villa: Villa wins thanks to a late, amazing goal from Daly.
Rachel Daly’s goal in injury time sealed an exhilarating victory for the Women’s Super League.
Rachel Daly’s spectacular goal in injury time gave Aston Villa a dramatic Women’s Super League victory over West Ham.
Before the half, Viviane Asseyi’s penalty kick gave West Ham the lead, and Anna Patten headed Villa to tie the score.
Getty Images/Alex Pantling(
Adriana Leon put Villa ahead, and Lisa Evans seemed to have tied the score with a stunning half-volley for West Ham.
But Daly scored an incredible late goal from inside the box.
Despite their most recent WSL defeat at the hands of Manchester United—a 5-0 loss—the Hammers were fired up to take on Villa.
Riko Ueki pushed a header past Daphne van Domselaar at point-blank range after she whistled a shot past the post on the turn.
Asseyi’s low strike from the penalty spot into the bottom-left corner beat Domselaar, and West Ham should have felt confident enough to seize the lead.
It did, however, cause Villa some surprise, as Patten equalized shortly after by latching onto Daly’s flick and heading the ball at the back post.
Leon’s superb finish, which beat Mackenzie Arnold, gave Villa the lead after the break. But after Asseyi’s knockdown with ten minutes remaining, Evans found some space on the outskirts of the area and struck a half-volley into the top-right corner to equalize the score.
Nevertheless, Daly, an England international, had an equally amazing moment to give the visitors the three points with a powerful acrobatic attempt with her left foot past Van Domselaar.
Analysis: West Ham has some problems. They lost the game and failed to hold onto a point. They haven’t won at home in the Women’s Super League for a year, which is an incredible accomplishment for the wrong reasons.
If they continue on their current downward trajectory, they may soon find themselves at the bottom of the table.
With several excellent stops in the Villa goal, Van Domselaar helped Aston Villa move from the bottom of the table to ninth position.
Overall, it was a tightly contested match with excellent end-to-end action. West Ham will be devastated to have lost the match the way they did after making such a strong effort to come back into it.
