Manchester City boss backs Khadija Shaw to take confidence from scoring return

Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor believes Khadija Shaw will take confidence from her goalscoring return to the side.

The prolific forward pulled out of City’s League Cup semi-final with Arsenal on Thursday for mental health reasons after experiencing racist abuse following defeat by the same team in the Women’s Super League last weekend.

Shaw began Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Leicester on the bench but came on for the second half and scored in the 59th minute of City’s 3-1 victory.

“I think that will give her a lot of confidence,” said Taylor on bbc.co.uk. “She’s coming out of a team in a time where you don’t really want that to happen, particularly when she’s coming back from injury as well.”

Shaw is the leading scorer in the WSL with nine goals despite recently missing more than a month because of a leg injury.

Leila Ouahabi and Kerolin had put City two up at half-time, while Nelly Lasova scored a late consolation for Leicester.

Elsewhere, quadruple-chasing Chelsea came from behind to defeat Everton 4-1 and reach the quarter-finals.

Four days after booking their spot in the League Cup final, Sonia Bompastor’s WSL leaders ultimately eased through to the last eight.

It was Everton who took the lead, with Sara Holmgaard finding the net in the 17th minute.

By half-time, Chelsea were ahead, though, thanks to a penalty from Catarina Macario and a stoppage-time goal from Mayra Ramirez.

Maika Hamano extended the advantage in the 71st minute before another penalty in stoppage time, this time converted by Sandy Baltimore.

Liverpool left it late to end the challenge of third-tier Rugby Borough, battling to a 2-0 victory.

Marie Hobinger finally broke the deadlock with six minutes remaining and Mia Enderby added a second two minutes into stoppage time.

It was a similar scenario for WSL basement side Crystal Palace against Newcastle, with Ashleigh Weerden and Abbie Larkin both scoring in the final 10 minutes of their 2-0 win.

London City are flying high in WSL 2 but they could not cause a huge upset against Arsenal, the Gunners another side to win 2-0 thanks to goals from Laia Codina and Stina Blackstenius.

Sunderland are the only non top-flight side left in the competition after beating fellow WSL 2 outfit Portsmouth 2-0.

Jenna Dear and Emily Scarr both scored late in the first half, while Portsmouth ended the match with 10 players after Scarlett Williams was sent off.