Manchester City Women kicked-off their 2018\/19 Champions League campaign with a 1-1 draw away to Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n
City, who reached the semi-finals of the Women\u2019s Champions League the past two seasons, started the game lively and opened the scoring early into the night\u2019s proceedings.<\/p>\n
Gemma Bonner headed City in front after 16 minutes from a Caroline Weir corner to the near-post. This was Bonner\u2019s first goal in a City shirt and an important one at that.<\/p>\n
A great start for City was met with instant pressure from the hosts. Amanda Sampedro\u2019s effort on goal had to be tipped over by Karen Bardsley in the City net.<\/p>\n
Before the break City\u2019s Tessa Wullaert produced a goal-line clearance from Elena Linari\u2019s ball, before Bonner would deny Ludmila Da Silva an attempt at goal.<\/p>\n
The Spanish league champions were eager to grab an equaliser and stepped it up a gear during the second 45.<\/p>\n
Bardsley was alert to prevent Da Silva from equalising, with a fine save.<\/p>\n
Claire Emslie had City\u2019s best chance of the second-half, but the substitute\u2019s curled effort went wide.<\/p>\n
The City back-line, who were without captain Steph Houghton, stood firm for the majority of the match. Goalkeeper, Bardsley had an impressive game between the sticks for the travelling City side.<\/p>\n
Nick Cushing\u2019s side thought they were home and dry, but a Kenti Robles deflected-cross found itself into the back of the City net. The late goal was enough for Atletico to snatch the draw.<\/p>\n
City, who drew their opening Women\u2019s Super League game against champions Chelsea at the weekend, have another tough pill to swallow after the harsh draw.<\/p>\n
The first leg draw does leave the reverse fixture, to be played at the Academy Stadium, Manchester on Wednesday, 26 September, hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n
City\u2019s away goal could be crucial going into the second leg, and it gives them a real chance of progressing into the last 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester City Women kicked-off their 2018\/19 Champions League campaign with a 1-1 draw away to Atletico Madrid. City, who reached the semi-finals of the Women\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1216,"featured_media":2440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4974,1],"tags":[1915,1916,273,1914],"class_list":["post-2441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","category-uncategorised","tag-atletico-madrid","tag-gemma-bonner","tag-manchester-city-women","tag-womens-super-league"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n