‘It’s truly magical to play at Anfield’ – Liverpool forward Román Haug excited for opening day derby | OneFootball

Liverpool forward Sophie Román Haug says that kicking-off the new Barclays Women’s Super League season with a Merseyside derby against Everton at Anfield is a special occasion.

The Reds are set to be backed by a bumper crowd on opening day as they look to begin the campaign positively under new boss Gareth Taylor.

It has been a long pre-season for Liverpool but Román Haug says that the team have been able to get plenty of practice in as they’ve adapted to new boss Taylor’s methods.

“It’s been good,” Román Haug said when speaking to WSL Full-Time. “It’s been nice to be back with the girls and getting back into training and everything. It’s a good way to practice different kinds of things that we want to get settled before the season starts.”

Commenting on Liverpool’s first test of the season against local rivals Everton, Román Haug said that it’ll be a great occasion to play out the contest on the Anfield turf.

She said “It’s truly magical to play at Anfield. It’s a great stadium, great fans in the stands and just the whole setting around is very special, so to be able to play here is something else. We’re really looking forward to that and also to be able to kick-off the season here against Everton.

“It’s got to be a good start, it’s something a little extra with the derby. 
It’s extra special when it’s against Everton because you always want to beat them. We’re all really ready to get kicked-off; we’ve been really concentrated and focused over pre-season to get a proper start to the season.”

Roman Háug missed some of the last campaign through injury. She went on to discuss both her personal goals and team goals ahead of the new season.

She said “Everyone is very excited for the season to come and ready to get properly started because we want to do better than we did last year. Obviously, we also want to take steps and improve ourselves, so we’re excited to get going.

“I got injured last season and it’s frustrating when you can’t really help the team in the way that you want to when you’re stuck on the sidelines. I’m hoping that things will be different this season and I’ll be able to have more of an impact as well. It’ll help [us] to reach the goals that we want to achieve and to be able to hopefully score some goals as well.”

Liverpool’s Merseyside derby fixture against Everton at Anfield kicks-off at 12pm on Sunday. Tickets are on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.