City v Bristol City: Continental Cup match preview | OneFootball

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Manchester City F.C.

·19 January 2022

City v Bristol City: Continental Cup match preview

Article image:City v Bristol City: Continental Cup match preview

Everything you need to know ahead of our Continental Cup quarter-final clash with Bristol City.

When and where

Our fixture with the Women’s Championship side takes place on Wednesday 19 January, with kick-off at the Academy Stadium scheduled for 19:00 (UK).


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The match is available to watch live with a CITY+ subscription, with the broadcast getting under way from 18:50.

You can also follow the best of the action over on Twitter: @ManCityWomen, while a detailed match report and post-match reaction will follow soon after the final whistle.

Highlights from our Conti Cup encounter and a CITY+ full-match replay will also be made available the following day.

Article image:City v Bristol City: Continental Cup match preview

Ticket information

Tickets for all City home games are on sale and are able to be purchased online or at the Academy Stadium on the day of the game.

Team news

Caroline Weir and Karima Taieb could make welcome returns to action.

Weir is yet to feature in 2022 due to COVID-19, while Taieb last played against Brighton and Hove Albion in our first game of the New Year, though she was named on the bench against Leicester City in our final Conti Cup group stage fixture.

Karen Bardsley (hamstring), Ellie Roebuck (calf), Esme Morgan (lower leg fracture) and Chloe Kelly (ACL) remain long-term absentees, while Hayley Raso and Alanna Kennedy are on Asia Cup duty with Australia.

Gareth Taylor preview

“We’ve monitored Bristol and kept an eye. They had a good win at the weekend and are in a false position in their league.

“They’ve got good physicality in their team, won their group in Conti Cup qualification so they’re certainly not a team to be underestimated and we won’t be doing that.

They’re still full-time and obviously going to be there or thereabouts. There’s not a huge gap. They were in the league last season, they got to a final which nobody would have predicted.

“I know there’s been a lot of changes but like I say: they’re a very aggressive team. We expect it to be a really tough game.

“[Bristol manager Lauren Smith] has adapted well to it. Sometimes when you make a lot of changes you never know how it’ll go – sometimes you might get short term but sometimes you have to wait longer.

“They’re aggressive, they take the game to teams. We studied that against Reading when they played them in the cup. Albeit teams change in the cup, they’ll provide a tough opposition and there’s a reason they’re in the quarter-finals.”

Last time out

Gareth Taylor’s side extended our winning run in all competitions to five matches with a deserved 3-0 triumph away to Aston Villa in the Women’s Super League.

Georgia Stanway’s deflected strike handed City an early advantage inside five minutes, before Vicky Losada tapped home a second from Ellen White’s cross on the stroke of half-time.

And number three would follow with 15 to play, as Stanway volleyed home her sixth goal in five matches from a Janine Beckie cutback.

Wednesday’s opponents also picked up all three points in their previous outing, with Abi Harrison’s early strike enough to down Blackburn Rovers in the Women’s Championship.

Previous meeting

Goals from Caroline Weir, Ellen White and Sam Mewis earned City a deserved 3-0 WSL win over the Vixens back in March 2021, our tenth in succession at the time.

Our last home match against Wednesday’s quarter-final opponents was even more emphatic, as Gareth Taylor’s side ran out as 8-1 winners at the Academy Stadium in November 2020.

Form Guide

City come into the tie having won each of our last five matches in all competitions, scoring 22 times while conceding just three in the process.

We finished top of a Conti Cup group containing Manchester United, Durham, Everton and Leicester City, winning three and losing just one of our four matches to book our place in the quarter-finals.

Bristol City also progressed to the knockout stages as group winners having got the better of Reading, Crystal Palace and Lewes.

The Vixens currently sit fifth in the Championship table and are unbeaten in all competitions since October.

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