Liverpool Women Fall To Aston Villa In Preseason Friendly
The match was behind closed doors at Melwood and marked a return for Missy Bo Kearns with her new team.
The Women’s team continued their preseason preparations for the upcoming WSL campaign by hosting Aston Villa at Melwood on Saturday. The friendly match ended with a victory for Villa after a goal from Ebony Salmon in the second half.
New signings Gemma Evans, Olivia Smith, and Cornelia Kapocs all were named to the starting lineup, giving them the first real chance to prove themselves under Matt Beard (or at least again, in Evans’ instance).
Missy Bo Kearns also made a return to Melwood for the first time since leaving the squad for Aston Villa and worked to mark the occasion with a goal, only to end up firing her shot wide.
The Reds’ first chance at goal came early on, when Mia Enderby sped down the left side and cut in for a shot that was eventually blocked by a Villa defender. Villa responded in kind with Jordan Nobbs passing over the top, and our Yana Daniels headed it away. The ball was unfortunately captured by Rachel Daly, but the shot was handled easily by Rachael Laws.
Daniels was put to work again not long after, getting a head on a swinging corner from Marie Höbinger that unfortunately didn’t find the target. Höbinger herself tried again ten minutes after that with a free kick after Enderby went down from a foul, but once again wasn’t able to find the net.
The one winning goal came eight minutes into the second half when Kearns herself saw a shot blocked by Laws, only for Ebony Salmon to follow through and catch the keeper off guard. From there Liverpool went searching for the equalizer, with a free kick from Smith going deep and just barely missing Evans stationed at the back post.
It would end 1-0 despite a denied penalty opportunity when Enderby went down in the box.
Liverpool Women face Manchester United for their next preseason match on Sunday at Carrington Training Ground.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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