Dias reflects on “intense” Inter draw

The visitors then tested the defensive capabilities of our opponents with Park’s attempt from range heroically blocked before Lauren Hemp’s effort from the edge of the box curled just past the top corner.

‘They are one of the most aggressive pressing teams I’ve seen’ were Gareth Taylor’s pre-match thoughts and his sentiments rang true midway through the first-half with City’s pace in defence able to thwart Paris counter-attacks when turnovers were forced.

But the visitors were finding our feet, and came within a width of the post away from the opener when Casparij burst down the right before her low cross was turned into the wrong side of the netting from Mary Fowler who had darted towards the near post.

In the blink of an eye, and approaching the final 15 minutes of the first half, the game sprang into life with two quickfire goals from the Blues of the highest quality.

The first came from the WSL’s all-time top goalscorer Miedema who expertly lost her marker inside the box to meet Park’s cross and slammed an unstoppable volley past Chiamaka Nnadozie.

Buoyed by our opener, we immediately went on the offensive as Fujino thundered an effort off the bar.

But from the resultant corner, another intricate move allowed Park to play a neat one-two with Fowler and Hemp, the latter producing a jaw-dropping backheel, before the former strode into the box and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way with a venomous effort.

Fowler latched onto hesitation from Nnadozie to retrieve the ball and tap into an empty net, seconds after the stopper had saved at the feet of Hemp.

Any pre-match nerves were extinguished 10 minutes after the restart and we continued to play with swagger and confidence.

Miedema in particular was showing why she’s been one of the game’s finest operators over the past decade when skipping past a challenge and testing Paris’ goalkeeper from distance.

Operating from midfield as she did phenomenally last year in the absence of Jill Roord, Park also continued to stamp her authority on proceedings when scoring our fourth with a real poacher’s instinct, tapping home a rebound after Hemp’s header was well saved.