St. Polten Women 2-3 Man City Women: Gareth Taylor Learns A 'Lesson' With UEFA Champions League Victory

Gareth Taylor said "lessons would be learned" from Manchester City's Women's Champions League win over St. Polten on Wednesday. (More Football News)

Having beaten reigning champions Barcelona last week, Alanna Kennedy got City off to a fast start with a fine strike from distance that cannoned in off the post. 

However, Melanie Brunnthaler and Kamila Dubcova handed the Norwegian side the lead, only for Aoba Fujino and Mary Fowler to seal the triumph for City at the Generali Arena. 

The visitors ended the contest with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.18 from their 17 shots, though only seven of their attempts were on target. 

And ahead of their Women's Super League clash with Aston Villa this weekend, Taylor is hoping his players will learn from underestimating an opponent. 

"I'm just really pleased to get the three points," he said. "I thought it was a difficult game on a really difficult pitch, people at home might not have realised that," Taylor said.

"You could see how bobbly it was, so we couldn't really play centrally and the space was out wide.

"It took us a while to recognise that, but when we did we switched the play multiple times and really caused them problems.

"I think it was a bit of a lesson learned. When you play teams like Polten, people expect an easy three points; these games certainly aren't."

"It was a hell of a hit," he said. "To be honest, I wasn't sure when she took the strike it was the right call, but she proved me wrong," Taylor said. 

Taylor was also surprised it was Kennedy who opened the scoring in stunning fashion, with the defender netting her only her second goal since her move from Tottenham in 2021. 

"It was a hell of a hit," he said. "To be honest, I wasn't sure when she took the strike it was the right call, but she proved me wrong," Taylor said. 

"She set herself nicely, and we should've had more. We missed some chances to increase our lead and that's what can happen if you don't take them.

"You leave yourself susceptible to a couple of set plays which we needed to deal with better. But we made some changes and then obviously it was nice to go and win the game.

"I liked what we did at the end of the game as well in controlling the final ten minutes. It's important and not easy to do because they were an energetic team who pressed hard."

Arsenal also claimed a victory on Wednesday, earning their first triumph in the competition after a humbling defeat to Bayern Munich in their opening game. 

The Gunners swept aside Valerenga at the Emirates, with Emily Fox, Caitlin Foord, Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo on target. 

It marked the first win of a new era at the club following Jonas Eidevall's departure earlier in the week. The Swede ended his three-year tenure shortly after their league defeat to Chelsea. 

And despite a “hectic” couple of days, interim boss Renee Slegers thought her team handled the disruption in the perfect manner.

“There have been a lot of emotions,” Slegers said. “I have always respected Jonas a lot and I have always enjoyed working with him.

“I think he did good things for the club for three or four years. I was sad and many others are too.

“It has been about managing emotions and trying to stick to the task ahead of us and what we needed to do to perform. It has been a couple of hectic days.”

The Dutch coach could not fault her squad’s togetherness, noting that they organised a meeting after Eidevall’s announcement to discuss the “drastic” news.

“I am happy for them and credit to them. They also got together yesterday and felt that they need to step up and I think that is what you see today on the pitch,” said Slegers.

“All credit to the team, you don’t want this drastic thing to happen to them and for them to get into this self-reflection moment, but I think it was good they did it, and now it is about maintaining that.”