Liverpool Women 2, Millwall Lionesses 0: Into The Quarterfinals!

A beautiful day at Prenton Park for a good win!

The FA Cup continues to help our Liverpool Women find some erstwhile confidence going into the second half of their season. The Women played their next round against Millwall Lionesses at Prenton Park on Sunday and while the first half was a little tough, they were able to break through in the second to take home a win and entry into the quarterfinals of the SSE Women’s FA Cup.

Riding high on the back of three previous wins (including that amazing 6-0 last weekend), the Red Women were ready to take control - they just had to tend to Millwall first. Millwall, of course, came with their own strategy and were able to hold off the Reds through the first half.

It definitely wasn’t for lack of trying on the Reds’ part. Both Kirsty Linnett and Niamh Fahey had goals disallowed through offside calls early on and Millwall’s keeper Chloe Sansom made sure that shots from Courtney Sweetman-Kirk and Rinsola Babajide stayed out. Even with most of the possession, the women just couldn’t make something happen - thankfully neither could Millwall.

It was well into the second half at 57 minutes when the first goal would come, with a pass from Jemma Purfield finding Linnett in the box. Linnett turned to make some space and fired a rocket just past Sansom to make it 1-0 for the hosts, thankfully ending the deadlock.

Babajide, who was at her terrorizing best throughout this match, had a beautiful effort go just barely wide a few minutes after the first goal. It didn’t take long for her to learn from that mistake and at 67 minutes, Babajide scored what would be the final goal of the game, after Linnett sent her a lovely backwards pass.

Liverpool had plenty of chances following the second goal, with Sweetman-Kirk searching out Ashley Hodson and Babajide going again with a curler that just barely hit the post. 2-0 is 2-0 though and will be taken home gladly to celebrate before the next round is announced.

The whole performance was almost perfectly executed and a wonderful send off for defender Satara Murray, who announced earlier this week she would be leaving the Women to return home to be closer to family. Her presence will be sorely missed in the back line but the send off wasn’t half bad.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com