Jess Park scored the only goal of the game to help Manchester City keep up their faint hopes of a top-three finish with a hard earned 1-0 victory over Leicester.

Nick Cushing’s side, who have two games left to play, closed the gap on neighbours Manchester United to just four points temporarily before the third-placed Red Devils clash with table-toppers Chelsea on Wednesday.

City were on top for most of the contest but were limited to shots from range as it looked like Leicester would make it a sixth straight home game unbeaten.

Hannah Cain could have given the Foxes the lead but saw her one-on-one effort saved by Khiara Keating and they were punished by Park’s clinical strike in the 70th minute which saw them lose at home for the first time in 2025.

City got an early stranglehold on proceedings and Kerstin Casparij would have been upset with her effort when she sliced high and wide from close range with the goal at her mercy.

The hosts had their own ambitions of winning the match and Yuka Momiki fashioned an opportunity for herself but drilled just the wrong side of the post.

Manchester City continued to probe but were not doing enough to test Janina Leitzig as Lily Murphy, Laura Coombs and Park each saw chances from range sail wide.

Despite all of City’s pressure, it was Leicester who could have nicked the lead heading into the interval as Shannon O’Brien broke for the hosts but her end product was too tame for Keating.

The best chance of the game fell to Cain after she latched on to a perfect through ball from O’Brien only to see her one-on-one strike tipped round the post.

City finally made the breakthrough with 20 minutes to go.

Substitute Lauren Hemp was given time to play a ball into the box and Park held her nerve and dispatched beyond Leitzig to make it 1-0.

Leicester almost responded with an equaliser straight away as Nelly Las darted towards goal and rifled an effort on target but once again Keating was alert to palm wide.

The hosts thought they equalised when Sam Tierney lifted home at the far post but celebrations were quickly cut short by the assistant referee’s offside flag as City held on to all three points.