After a summer off for good behaviour, the Women’s Super League (WSL) returned on Sunday with an entertaining a day filled with goals, cards and debuts. These are the key talking points from the WSL weekend, along with some highlights from European action.
Cards, cards, cards
With WSL referees encouraged to mirror the men’s game and clamp down on things like dissent and time-wasting, we saw an influx in cautions over the weekend, with an increased willingness from officials to go to their pockets for the type of fouls that have historically been overlooked in the women’s game.
Indeed, across the six games, 17 yellow cards were handed out for a variety of offences including dissent, with Aston Villa‘s Lucy Parker the first player to be booked this season in a match that saw six yellow cards in total issued by ref Rebecca Welch. It was a notable day in WSL that also saw two straight red cards — for Aston Villa’s Kirsty Hanson and Manchester City‘s Leila Ouahabi — which hasn’t happened in the league for over a decade.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
As well as the increase in cautions, just as there was at the Women’s World Cup this summer, there was ample time added on at the end of each half following new guidelines for stoppages in play, meaning some teams…
 returned on Sunday with great goals, red cards and sparkling debuts. Here's what you missed, along with some highlights from European action.){kind=link}