Gareth Taylor said "lessons would be learned" from Manchester City's Women's Champions League win over St. Polten on Wednesday. (More Football News)
Havi♐ng beaten reigning champions Barcelona last week, Alanna Kennedy got City off to a fastᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ 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.&nbsღp;
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 ahওead of their Women's Super League clash with Aston Villa this weekend, Tay⭕lor 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 recognis💎e that, but when we did we switꦬched 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," Tayl෴or 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 wha🦄t can happen if you don꧟'t take them.
"You leave y꧙ourself susceptible to a couple of set plays which we needed to deal with better. But we made some changes and then obviously it was niceꦜ to go and win the game.
"I liked what we did at the end of th🍨e 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 fir🐭st 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 o🍬n target.
It marked the first win of a new era at the club following Jonas Eideval൲l's departure earlier in the week. The Swede ended his three-year tenure shortly after their league defeat t༒o Chelsea.
And despite a “hec💜tic” couple of days, interim boss Renee Slegers thought her team handled the disruption in the perfect manner.
“There have been a lot of emotꦜions,” Slegers said. “I have always respected Jonas a lot and I have always enjoye☂d working with him.
“I t🦩hink he did good things for the club f🍒or three or four years. I was sad and many others are too.
“It has been about managi꧑ng 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 to🤡getherness, noting that they organised a meeting after Eidevall’s announcement to discuss the “drastic” news.
“I am 𒈔happy 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, bu🅠t I think it was good they did it, and now it is about maintaining that.”
