West Brom recorded their second home win of the new Championship season as they eventually prevailed against 10-man Middlesbrough in a breathless encounter at The Hawthorns.
The Baggies stormed ahead in a frantic first half thanks to Cedric Kipre’s 22nd-minute strike and John Swift’s 27th-minute thunderbolt, but Boro replied a minute later through Emmanuel Latte Lath.
Albion struck quickly in the second period through Brandon Thomas-Asante to make it 3-1 before Tommy Smith was shown his marching orders for the visitors soon after.
Marcus Forss did convert a late penalty, but the Baggies made sure of the points when Jeremy Sarmiento struck in stoppage time.
The first notable opportunity fell to the visitors, but it was of West Brom’s own making. Semi Ajayi, when receiving Okay Yokuslu’s pass inside his own penalty area, was caught in possession by Riley McGree and the Australian poked a low effort at goal which Alex Palmer was able to save with his leg.
Passing up that chance would prove costly, as Albion went up the other end and produced the afternoon’s first goal.
Darnell Furlong’s long throw-in was contested by Ajayi and Darragh Lenihan, but the loose ball fell to Kipre, who made room for himself, chested the ball down and struck a smart half-volley past Seny Dieng.
West Brom doubled their advantage a little over five minutes later when Jayson Molumby fed Swift, who was allowed time and space to drive forwards from midfield and fire a powerful shot into the top corner.
The first half fun and games were not done there, though, as Boro hit back instantly. Samuel Silvera ran at Matt Phillips on the right-hand side and the cross which followed was nodded past Palmer by Latte Lath.
The Ivorian centre-forward might have doubled his own tally before half-time, but he lifted another attempt over Palmer and also over the bar.
Equally, Albion could have extended their advantage at the other end, but Phillips pulled a low shot just wide of the far post.
Boro right-back Smith was booked for catching Jed Wallace just before half-time but it was his full-back counterpart Lukas Engel who endured a nightmare beginning to the second period when his attempted pass back was cut out by the lurking Thomas-Asante, who nipped in, took advantage of the loose ball and rounded Dieng before calmly rolling the ball home.
The Baggies were two goals to the good again, and shortly after they had a man advantage too, when Smith pulled Phillips’ shirt on the run and was dismissed with his second booking.
The home side, though, failed to put the game to bed and 10-man Boro were encouraged in the later stages when Isaiah Jones’ cross from the left struck the arm of Furlong and fellow substitute Forss rolled home the resulting penalty.
But West Brom would prevail when on-loan Brighton forward Sarmiento collected the ball from former Boro loanee Alex Mowatt in the penalty area before rifling his shot into the roof of the net.
Chelsea 2-0 Manchester City: Bompastor's side go top of WSL with late show
Chelsea left it late, scoring twice in four minutes, to secure a 2-0 win over Manchester City in the Women's Super League to leapfrog them to the top of the table.
Mayra Ramirez and Guro Reiten got the all-important goals, condemning City to their first league defeat of the campaign.
The visitors, who were without the injured Lauren Hemp, arguably should have taken the lead in the first half when Khadija Shaw latched onto Sandy Baltimore's wayward backpass, but the forward could only drag it wide of the far post.
In a tight game, Chelsea stayed calm, though Ramirez wasted a chance to square it into the box to give a team-mate an easy tap-in early in the second half.
The Colombian did not make the same mistake a second time. On a quick counter-attack, she brushed Alanna Kennedy aside to reach Maika Hamano's throughball before weaving away from Alex Greenwood to drive it into the bottom-right corner in the 75th minute.
Just four minutes later, they doubled their lead. Reiten was left in acres of space on the right of the box and curled a delightful finish out of Ayaka Yamashita's reach.
Chelsea maintained their perfect record under Sonia Bompastor, making it 10 wins from 10, and moved two points clear of City at the top of the WSL, still with a game in hand over their title rivals.
Data Debrief: Battling to the end
Even so early in the season, there was a lot riding on this in regards to the title race, and City have seemingly blinked first.
They looked far from their usual best, possibly in part due to Hemp's absence, as they struggled to create many meaningful chances.
Chelsea were also guilty of being wasteful early on but looked the more likely to score, managing 15 shots compared to City's eight while also edging the expected goals (xG) count (0.85 to 0.56).
Bompastor also became the first-ever manager to win each of their first seven games in the WSL.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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