Liverpool FC Women 1-1 Leicester City Women – Match Report | OneFootball

Liverpool FC Women began their Women’s Super League campaign and competitive life in their new home with a 1-1 draw against Leicester City on what was a woeful afternoon weather-wise in St Helens.

Whilst summer may have disappeared early on what was officially the final day of the ‘hottest’ season, Reds’ boss Matt Beard named summer arrival Gemma Evans in his opening day starting lineup with the Welsh defender named alongside the likes of Olivia Smith, Lucy Parry and Gemma Bonner having made the treacherous switch from Manchester United to Liverpool.

There was another new name on the team sheet as Canadian youth international Olivia Smith also made her competitive Reds’ bow in the pouring rain as Beard’s side started the new season with plenty of cause for optimism in terms of thief football, albeit the result wasn’t the desired outcome.

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It was a long-range Ceri Holland strike that drew the first meaningful save of the afternoon as a diving and aptly named Lize Kop denied Liverpool what would’ve been a wonderful first goal of the season.

More impressive football followed from the hosts and the livewire Smith was at the heart of another attacker before setting up Marie Höbinger for a seemingly golden opportunity only for the Austrian to tamely strike the effort straight at the goalkeeper.

Despite the encouragement from the Leicester travelling support the first half turned quickly into attack versus defence as Beard’s charges piled on the pressure with Gemma Bonner and captain Taylor Hinds all heavily involved in attempting to break the deadlock.

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Both teams exchanged corners in pursuit of an opening goal but it remained Liverpool in the ascendency as the first half reached its midway point, however, the visitors were beginning to get more of a foothold as their plan to protect and counter started to pay dividends.

Having more or less dominated proceedings in 35 minutes of almost exclusive one-way traffic, the visitors from the Midlands were vastly improved in the closing stages of the half and it took some superb last-ditch defending from numerous Reds to keep it goalless.

There was one final moment of promise for the hosts as Hinds’ perseverance won a corner late on in the opening 45 and it broke the deadlock as Roman Haug nodded home from close range at the back post following a wonderful delivery from Höbinger.

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There was no such wait for a goal in the second half as the visitors capitalised on the eager Liverpool defence when a raking diagonal from Yuka Momiki evaded the touch of a retreating Hinds and was well finished off by Jutta Rantala, giving Rachael Laws no chance.

Beard turned to the bench for the first time as Mia Enderby replaced Jenna Clark with the rain now having switched from torrential to frankly biblical and the game evenly poised heading into the final half hour.

Smith was once again the driving force for The Reds and she led the attack before Hinds’ deep cross was headed goalbound by Holland only to see Leicester goalkeeper Kop push the ball behind for a corner.

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Höbinger was replaced by Sophie Lundgaard before a double switch saw Leanne Kiernan and Cornelia Kapocs enter the fray with time beginning to run out for a winner and the contest as evenly matched as at any point since kick-off.

Liverpool went close to finding a winner when Bonner got just too much contact on a near post header as her effort went narrowly over the bar before the visiting goalkeeper was duly cautioned for timewasting from the resulting goal kick.

The Reds were pushing hard for all three points late on and an additional seven minutes brought a ring of approval around the majority of the ground but it was only a disallowed Leicester goal that brought any level of high drama in the closing stages as both sides had to settle for a share of the spoils.

Attendance: 3,058

Speaking after the match, manager Matt Beard bemoaned a ‘frustrating’ afternoon…

“If you look at the chances when we were dominating the game, you need to covert because the longer you leave it they’re always going to have a spell in the game. We should’ve been out of sight at half-time. Take the point, take the positives, Sophie’s goal. We’re still finding our feet here. But yeah, frustrating.”

Beard however was impressed with debutants Evans and Smith who both showed their qualities: “I thought Olivia Smith was excellent today, she can definitely finish so I was surprised she didn’t take those opportunities. I thought Gemma was excellent, out of possession and in possession she didn’t do anything wrong.”