FA Cup run a realistic target for Leicester City says Kirk | OneFootball

Leicester City head coach Willie Kirk says that his side have to be targeting an extended run in this season’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup.

The Foxes face Birmingham City in a fifth round tie at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Should Leicester City be successful in that match, the club will be as little as 180 minutes of football away from a Wembley final.

When speaking to the media ahead of this weekend’s fixture, Kirk said that Leicester City must target an extended FA Cup run alongside a top half of the table finish this season.

“It’s really important,” Kirk said when discussing the prospect of a FA Cup run. “We never put limitations on the group and we want to finish top half of the table which would be a massive achievement in itself given where we were.

“The FA Cup is always special and you never know what will happen at this stage. I’ve been there before with a club with resources similar or slightly less than this. It’s realistic to think that [you can be successful] if you get a couple of breaks along the way and a kind draw sometimes helps.

“You’ll need to beat big teams to get to that final and Birmingham is just a part of that journey. We won’t look any further than that but each round, you get that little bit closer.

“We have to be looking to get as far in the competition as possible.”

Going on to discuss Birmingham City, Kirk expects his side to come up against an opponent that’s in a very similar mould.

He said “They’re actually not hugely different from us in terms of style. In the statistics and the data, where we place ourselves in the WSL, they’re very similar in terms of what their strengths are and the areas that they’ll want to improve on. It’s data that’s important to us, everybody will look at different performance indicators but I certainly think their style is quite similar. They like aggressive press and are happy to go player-for-player at times.

“They’re one of four or five teams in the Championship that could come up. If they do come up, I think they’ll be well-placed, probably better placed than the rest of the teams in terms of having a squad that could play in the WSL. They’ve got a lot of experience, players like Jade Moore, Remi Allen, Claudia Walker, Martha Harris; they’ve got great WSL minutes under their belts already.

“It’ll be a really tough test and our players know that. If they don’t show up and do the basics very well, Birmingham will progress and not us.”

Leicester City’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup fifth round tie against Birmingham City is scheduled to take place at the Pirelli Stadium at 12pm on Saturday afternoon. Tickets will be available to purchase on the day.