Taylor expecting tough tie for Manchester City against Aston Villa | OneFootball

Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor expects nothing other than a really tough game when his side face Aston Villa in the quarter-finals of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup this evening.

The two Barclays Women’s Super League rivals go head-to-head in Walsall in what is arguably the most eye-catching tie in the last-eight of the competition.

When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Manchester City head coach Taylor acknowledged the huge strides forward that have been taken by Aston Villa this season.

“I can see that they’ve massively improved,” Taylor said. “They’ve made a big step this season if you look at the league table, see where they are at and the points that they’ve accumulated so far. That’s come down to some decent recruitment, they’ve signed some good players; they’ve got a real threat with (Rachel) Daly at the top end of the pitch and they play counter attacking football supported with Jordan (Nobbs) and (Lucy) Staniforth behind who are good players.

“It is a simple formula, you put some decent players together, you give them time, you give them a platform to perform on and that’s what we are seeing from Villa.”

Manchester City have a good record in the Vitality Women’s FA Cup but Taylor knows that it won’t be easy to reach this season’s semi-finals.

He said “It’s a special competition to anyone who is involved in it whether you are players, coaches, supporters, it still retains that magic and for us, being in the quarter-finals is great. We’ve been strong in this competition, we’ve won it on a few occasions and the times that we haven’t won it, we’ve been really close.

“It is going to be a tough game against a team that has caused us some issues this season, it’s at their place but it’s one that we are really looking forward to.”

Manchester City’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup quarter-final tie at Aston Villa kicks-off at 6pm.