Manchester City winger Chloe Kelly terrorises Fiorentina in convincing Champions League win

Manchester City 3 Fiorentina 0

Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor said there is “no limit” to England winger Chloe Kelly’s potential, after her starring role in their impressive 3-0, first-leg victory over Fiorentina in the Women’s Champions League.

Kelly, 23, frequently tormented the Italian visitors down the hosts’ right flank and provided two assists with teasing crosses to help put City on course for the quarter-finals.

Praising Kelly, who joined City from Everton last summer, Taylor said: “From when she first came to us to where she is now, you’ve seen a big improvement, particularly in her decision-making. There’s still a lot of room for improvement but she’s very coachable, she wants to improve. I love her attitude. On the pitch she’s a street-fighter, she doesn’t get bullied off the ball. The fact she has that growth mindset, there’s no limit to where she can go.”

Her threats were evident inside two minutes, as Kelly’s precisely-placed cross met Lauren Hemp’s attacking run into the box and 20-year-old Hemp headed home her eighth goal in nine club games.

Moments later, Ellen White doubled the lead following a tremendous team move. Flowing, one-touch passing accelerated when Caroline Weir cut through the Italian side’s defence with a through ball to left-winger Hemp, whose low cross to the near post was flicked into the roof of the net by White with deadly style.

At that stage, the tie looked set to be extremely one-sided. Kelly had an effort saved and then fired narrowly over the bar from the edge of the area, as City’s relentless start continued, before the visitors managed to compose themselves and they made it significantly harder for City to create chances thereon. Eventually, Kelly picked out substitute Sam Mewis in space at the far post for the United States midfielder to head in for 3-0 with a minute remaining, after a much quieter second half.

Fiorentina, whose starting line-up included the Republic of Ireland’s former Arsenal centre-back Louise Quinn and former Manchester City midfielder Tessel Middag, brought on Scotland striker Lana Clelland at half-time, but they didn’t see enough of the ball as a team to really bring the Perthshire-born forward into the game.

“It’s a standard above what we’re used to,” Clelland admitted. “They’ve got some incredible world-class players. We’re maybe used to a different sort of tempo over in Italy so it took us five-10 minutes to get up to that standard and unfortunately they’ve hit us quickly and we’ve conceded two goals. If you take the first 10 minutes out of the game, we were pretty even.”

Fiorentina coach Antonio Cicotta, whose side were without nine players through a combination of injuries and Covid-19 precautions, said City’s quick start was a “shock” for his side, adding: “We are not used to playing with this high rhythm because the league in Italy is not at this high level.”

The Florence-based club qualified by virtue of finishing second in the Women’s Serie A behind Juventus last term, but this season they are down in fifth spot. Their one single shot of the game came after a rare counter attack in the second half, but Denmark’s Frederikke Thorgersen curled wide after racing into the box.

Taylor was most pleased his side had not conceded an away goal, adding: “When you get to this stage of the competition, clean sheets are priceless. It was an important goal to score the third one, that makes a big difference.”

Fiorentina will surely have to attempt to attack far more frequently in the second leg in Florence, which will be played next Thursday, 11 March at 13:00 GMT, while City will hope the trip is simply the next step on their road to the final in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 16 May.

Match details

Manchester City (4-3-3): Roebuck; Bronze, Houghton (c), Dahlkemper (Morgan, 64), Greenwood; Stanway, Coombs, Weir (Mewis, 64); Kelly, White, Hemp (Lavelle, 64)
Subs not used: Taieb, Keating, Mannion, Beckie, Walsh, Davies
Yellow cards: Dahlkemper

Fiorentina (5-3-2): Schroffenegger; Thorgersen, Cordia, Quinn, Adami (c), Zanoli (Monnecchi, 77); Vigilucci, Neto, Middag; Baldi (Clelland, 45) Sabatino
Subs not used: Ohrstrom, Tortelli, Breitner, Piemonte, Forcinella (g), Pastifieri, Papi, Mani
Yellow cards: Neto

Referee: Monika Mularczyk (Poland)