Manchester City on verge of WSL title after Knaak’s last-gasp winner sinks Liverpool

Manchester City’s Rebecca Knaak scored a stoppage-time winner to give her side a nervy 1-0 home victory over Liverpool and put one hand on the Women’s Super League trophy for the first time since 2016.

City top the standings on 52 points with one game left and are out of reach of second-placed Chelsea, who are nine points behind ahead of their clash with bottom side Leicester later on Sunday.

Arsenal’s 7-0 midweek hammering of Leicester puts them third on 41 points, and they have three games in hand on City, with four games remaining. Manchester City have a superior goal difference of seven.

The title race is now firmly in City’s hands and a win at West Ham on 16 May will secure the title, while if Arsenal drop points in any of their three games in hand they play before then – the first of which is on Wednesday at Brighton – the title will be City’s.

City looked nervous in the opening exchanges as Liverpool came close to scoring through an Aurélie Csillag header and a Grace Fisk shot that struck the woodwork.

Andrée Jeglertz’s side upped the tempo in the second half, forcing Liverpool’s Jennifer Falk to make an excellent reflex save to deny Kerolin just after the hour mark, and she pulled off an even better one-handed stop in added time to prevent Bunny Shaw’s header from hitting the back of the net.

Tottenham made a presentation to Beth England at the game against London City Lionesses as she is leaving the club this summer. Photograph: Javier García/Tottenham Hotspur FC/Shutterstock

The home side finally broke the deadlock from the resulting corner as Knaak lost her marker and headed towards the bottom-left corner, and for once Falk was found wanting as the ball squirmed over the line to the delight of the home crowd.

In London, Olivia Holt scored with a stunning long-range shot for Tottenham as they beat London City Lionesses 2-1 to remain comfortably in fifth position, while on Saturday fourth-placed Manchester United’s hopes of making next season’s Champions League suffered a blow as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton.

On Saturday, Birmingham and Crystal Palace both secured promotion to the top flight, with third-placed Charlton set to face bottom WSL side Leicester in a playoff to see who gets the final spot in the top flight.