Manchester City without Khadija Shaw for key Paris match after visa blunder | Manchester City Women

Manchester City’s Due to a lack of a visa application, Khadija Shaw will not be in the squad for Wednesday night’s Champions League qualifier against Paris FC.

Shaw has not travelled to France for the first leg of the second round qualifier despite belated attempts to secure a visa. The Guardian understands that the Jamaican forward was sent to the French embassy on Tuesday morning but his request for an expedited application was rejected. City have refused to ask Shaw to try and secure a late visa and are understood to be confident that there will be no problems in the future.

City have failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage in the past three seasons. In 2022-23 they finished fourth in the Women’s Super League, outside the qualifying positions, and in the other two seasons they were knocked out in the qualifying rounds by Real Madrid.

The absence of the influential Shaw is likely to be keenly felt, despite the arrival of Vivianne Miedema from Arsenal, as Paris FC are not an easy side to get past. They knocked out Arsenal and Wolfsburg to reach the group stage last season, where they finished third, ahead of Real Madrid, in Group D. Paris claimed two wins over Madrid and scored in defeats at home to Häcken and Chelsea.

Shaw was the WSL’s top scorer last season, with 21 goals in 18 games. That was the same tally as Sam Kerr in the 2021-22 season and only bettered by Miedema’s 22 in 2018-19 and Rachel Daly’s 22 in the 2022-23 season. Shaw was named the WSL Player of the Season, the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Female Player of the Year and the Football Writers’ Association’s Female Player of the Year.