Liverpool Women Prepare For Battle Against Struggling Aston Villa
After another 4-0 battering against Arsenal, Liverpool look to pick themselves back up.
Liverpool Women had a mostly great March following Matt Beard’s ouster and Amber Whiteley taking over as interim head coach at the end of February. They moved up to sixth in the league, from their place in seventh. They advanced in the Women’s FA Cup. However, last weekend they took a heavy loss to Arsenal, falling 4-0 away to the Gunners.
On Sunday, the team takes on Aston Villa, who are currently struggling for their lives in the league. The Villans are in 11th place, only one point above bottom-dwellers Crystal Palace. While that sounds like the kind of game where the Reds could dominate, Whiteley and captain Niamh Fahey preached caution.
“Aston Villa have got a really talented squad. I don’t think they’re in a good spot at the moment but they’re going to be fighting for every point they can get going forward,” Whiteley said.
With only five more league games with which to dig themselves out of the hole their in, Aston Villa will want to use their home advantage to secure much needed points in their fight to remain above the drop zone.
On the other side, though, Liverpool themselves are only one point behind Brighton for fifth place, with a match up between the two sides scheduled for April. The 11 point chasm between them and Manchester City in fourth will likely insurmountable.
It could be argued that Liverpool punched above their weight last season, ending their second campaign back in the top flight in fourth place. The goal going into this season was to fight for a European spot, but those hopes were dashed. Now picking up momentum and reversing their downward slide to see out the season has become imperative. They also face Chelsea in the semi-finals of FA Cup, where they seek to gain another trophy for their case.
“You never want to play any team that is fighting for their lives and as that’s now the scenario, there’s no doubt it’s going to be a tough game for us,” Fahey said of Sunday’s match.
“We have to be prepared for a Villa team who will fight all the way but also focus on ourselves and then implement the things that we want to do and that we’ve been mostly doing well over the last couple of weeks or so.”
The Sunday afternoon game kicks off 1PM GMT / 9AM EST.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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