England's Rachel Daly hits brace as Aston Villa stun Manchester City in Women's Super League thriller

Aston Villa beat Manchester City in a 4-3 thriller on the opening weekend of the Women’s Super League. City are among the favourites for the title this season and fought back from 2-0 down to lead the match, but Villa rallied to secure all three points as City lost on opening day for the first time since 2014.

Ad Alisha Lehman opened the scoring against the run of play with a rifled effort past Ellie Roebuck before Rachel Daly doubled Villa’s lead on the spin inside the box. Premier League'No question' — Ferdinand makes Haaland Ballon d'Or predictionA DAY AGO The hosts threatened to run away with the match but Laura Coombs pulled a goal back for City on the stroke of half-time as Hannah Hampton struggled between the sticks to keep out her powerful strike.

City came out flying in the second half, with Khadija Shaw poking home after Houghton won a header from a corner. And two minutes later, courtesy of some more shaky goalkeeping, Coombs had her second with a two-touch finish that saw City take the lead for the first time.

United thrash Reading on opening day of WSL season Arsenal sweep aside Brighton to win WSL opener in style Their advantage lasted all of three minutes though as Kenza Dali doubled her tally with an effort that took a fortunate deflection off Alex Greenwood. And in a finely balanced, end-to-end contest, it was Daly’s second that restored Villa’s lead and secured the win after a goalkeeping howler, pouncing on a poor parry from Roebuck.

It is the first time Villa have taken points off City in the WSL and ahead of the remaining fixtures of the weekend, it took them third in the table behind Arsenal and Manchester United. Premier League‘It's nice when Pep defends me’ — Grealish thanks Guardiola after