Vilamala goal enough to beat Palace

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

Crystal Palace 0 Albion 1: Bruna's first-half goal makes it three WSL wins out of four.

Bruce Talbot

2024-10-13T15:55+01:00

Bruna Vilamala scores her first Albion goal. 📷 Kyle Hemsley

Albion made it three WSL wins out of four as their good start to the season continued with a hard-fought win over Crystal Palace at the VBS Stadium.

Bruna Vilamala’s first goal for the club ten minutes before half-time was decisive when the Barcelona loanee scored from close range.

The first WSL meeting between the clubs was often scrappy with clear-cut chances at a premium, but Dario Vidosic will be pleased with how his side kept the home side at bay without consistently finding the fluency they had shown in the wins over Everton and Aston Villa.

A high-five from Fran Kirby for Bruna Vilamala, who put Albion in front with her first goal for the club. 📷 Kyle Hemsley

There was a familiar face in Palace’s line-up in defender Fliss Gibbons, who made 84 appearances for Albion across four seasons, and she got forward in the ninth minute and let fly but her shot was deflected wide.

Albion began to dominate possession without seriously threatening in front of goal for the first half hour and although Palace grew in confidence they too struggled to create clear-cut opportunities.

It needed a goal and when it arrived on 35 minutes it reflected the scrappy nature of the game thus far. Jelena Cancovic swung in a cross from wide on the left and Palace keeper Shae Yanez dropped it under pressure from Nikita Parris. As Palace appealed for a foul on Yanez, Bruna reacted quickest to poke the ball into an empty net.

Cancovic, who had made a tidy first league start, had to come off with an injury but as they enjoyed their best spell of the half Albion should have doubled their lead three minutes before the break. Pauline Bremer won the ball back 30 yards out and played Fran Kirby in on goal, but Yanez atoned for her error on the goal by pushing away Kirby’s powerful shot.

Watched by Fran Kirby, Nikitta Parris bursts forward. 📷 Kyle Hemsley

Yanez made another good stop early in the second half when Vicky Losada tried to find the top corner with a chip from 15 yards but Palace were far from out of it going into the final 25 minutes, getting the ball into the box at every opportunity and forcing Albion to defend in numbers.

Josie Green made a crucial clearance to prevent Michelle Agyemang converting Kiko Seike’s cross when two of Albion’s subs combined and Guro Bergsvand had the ball in the net from the resultant corner, but this time Albion were penalised for a foul on Yanez.

Pauline Bremer gets past Crystal Palace defender Josie Green. 📷 Kyle Hemsley

Agyemang made space but fired just over and Yanez got her fingertips onto Seike’s drive to oush it over the bar before Sophie Baggaley, who’d had little to do, preserved Albion’s first clean sheet in the WSL since March with an acrobatic stoppage-time tip-over which kept out Annabel Blanchard’s shot from the edge of the box.

Albion: Baggaley, Bergsvand, Thorisdottir (McLauchlan 60), Carabali, Olislagers, Losada, Cancovic (Symonds 38), Bruna (Seike 60), Kirby, Parris (Auee 90+3), Bremer (Agyemang 60).