London City Lionesses 2-0 Brighton: Alexia Putellas' first WSL goal helps send London City into second
Report and free match highlights as Alexia Putellas scores her first goal in English football as London City Lionesses beat Brighton; Lucia Corrales added late second; win sends the club into second ahead of Chelsea and Tottenham; the Seagulls' wait for a WSL win this season goes on
Saturday 26 September 2026 20:04, UK
Alexia Putellas scored her first goal in English football, helping London City Lionesses to a 2-0 win against Brighton and sending them second in the WSL table.
The biggest signing of the summer collected a rebounded save after Chiamaka Nnadozie initially stopped Kadidiatou Diani's strike. She then swerved a half-volley around her defender that beat the still-recovering goalkeeper.
It was the first real chance of a first half that lacked many, although Brighton almost equalised instantly. Emily Murphy's header curled onto the crossbar though and Keiko Seike - who was impressive defensively - could not sort her feet out to slot home the loose ball.
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Lucia Corrales rounded off the victory late on, finishing a wonderful team break. Danielle van de Donk stole the ball away from Fran Kirby, releasing Delphine Cascarino, who in turn picked out the incoming run of Corrales on the left, who emphatically finished.
London City's third win of the season sends them above Chelsea and Tottenham into second ahead of the remaining games on Sunday, while Brighton's wait for a first WSL win goes on. They remain in 10th.
Putellas verdict after her first WSL goal
London City Lionesses captain Alexia Putellas on her rebounded goal:
"It's a little bit of training these things and a little bit of intuition inside the box. The most important thing is helping the team… I'm very proud of all the players.
"It's a new challenge [in the WSL] for everybody because we want to build something special here. We're on our way, we have to keep pushing, keep working, keep being together and let's see [about] this season."
On the second goal: "We're trying to be unpredictable. We can score goals through the possession and counter-attacks. We have players for both styles so our main goal is to be unpredictable and we achieved that today."
London City Lionesses head coach Eder Maestre added: "It's a relief because she's doing amazing. She's trying to lead the team through the captaincy. I'm so glad to see her scoring again, but it's not about the goal, it's about everything she's bringing to the team in terms of providing this quality that she has."
The key moments from the CopperJax Community Stadium...
29: GOAL! Putellas scored her first goal in English football, volleying home from a rebounded save.
35: ALMOST! Brighton nearly equalised, but Murphy's header hit the bar before Seike almost missed the loose ball.
54: CLOSE! Putellas almost scored her second goal of the evening, but her header from Mapi Leon's free kick pinged off the woodwork.
72: SAVE! Seike's shot is saved well by Elene Lete.
90+2: GOAL! Corrales finished off a fine team break for London City's second.
Maestre: We're trying to be humble but ambitious
London City Lionesses boss Eder Maestre:
"We knew the game was going to be very difficult. Brighton are a very good team, very difficult to try and keep the ball because of the fluency they have in midfield.
"Very proud of the team because it's not only about the win, but how you get that win. We respected the identity, we were dominant throughout the game. We had good options to be even more aggressive to score that finishing action. We felt quite comfortable in the game so I'm really proud of the team."
On going second: "It's the target. We're with that underdog mentality that we're trying to be humble but ambitious at the same time.
"In this project, we want to reach that target and we are here to push the limits and put the players in the best option to hit that target. It's temporary, but we are dreaming big so hopefully we can be in that position until the last moment in the competition."
Ruiz: We need to make the most of our situations
Brighton head coach Arturo Ruiz:
"With such a good rival that we have today, we made it a long game because they didn't generate a lot of finishing situations so we were comfortable and superior in a lot of moments, but for sure we need to feel more comfortable in the moments we are feeling very good and make the most of them.
"We generated quite a few [scoring situations], but we need to read the momentum better of both teams and that's the main conclusion of today. We worked very hard but we didn't get points here.
"We are disappointed because our substitutions were meant to be very offensive and this is the thing we need to generate the feeling of confidence because at one point, our rival were afraid of not winning. They were not absolutely comfortable with 1-0 and were not looking for the 2-0… and after a difficult first half, we need to feel it and smell it to make the most of it."
