Tensions were high when Aston Villa travelled to Leigh Sports Village to face Manchester United in the WSL. The events of this week’s Conti Cup fixtures leaves the quarter-final draw in the balance, with Villa, United, and Sunderland all waiting to hear their fates, after Villa fielded an ineligible player.
Outside of the controversy, Villa have found confidence in the Conti Cup and planned to bring that momentum into today’s match. Ward selected Maritz and Mayling at fullback positions, and Lehmann over Hanson on the wing. Lucy Staniforth was missing from the squad, presumably with a late injury, so Blindkilde and Nobbs started together in midfield.
Head of WSL Content: Georgia Homer
Villa started brightly and Dali created a chance in the opening minutes, sending a ball into the box from the right, but Daly was unable to redirect it on target.
Against the run of play, Manchester United opened the scoring after 7 minutes, when Villa gave away possession close to our own box. Hannah Blundell pounced on the chance and sent the ball in for Nikita Parris to head past van Damselaar into the far corner.
Momentum shifted after the goal and Manchester United became the more attacking side, with several opportunities to double their lead. The closest was an Ella Toone hit from a Lisa Naalsund pull-back that flew narrowly over the bar in the 18th minute.
It took until the 33rd minute for the home side to score their second and Parris secured her brace. Lucia Garcia’s shot was pushed onto the post by van Domselaar to stop it reaching the top right corner, but Parris was waiting in the box to score from the rebound.
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Carla Ward switched out Alisha Lehmann for Kirsty Hanson at half-time, perhaps partly due to her early yellow card.
The second-half opened and it looked like we could face more of the same, with van Domselaar called into action a couple of times in the opening minutes by Geyse Ferreira. But Villa quickly grew into the half.
Leon started to find some joy down the right wing and Jordan Nobbs found herself a chance to shoot from range. Her shot was parried by Mary Earps to give Villa the corner, which kept the attack alive but shots were blocked and the phase ended with Maritz shooting high from distance.
A few minutes later, Villa won another corner, but contact in the penalty area brought Daly to the ground and the team were awarded a penalty. Mary Earps guessed correctly, but the height and power of the shot by Daly put Villa back in the game. 2-1.
Villa continued to push for the equaliser and brought on Ebony Salmon for Adriana Leon, but the best moment was a powerful effort by Kirsty Hanson in the 80th minute. The ex-United player ran down the left channel and fired the shot towards the centre of the goal, forcing a reaction save from Earps.
Despite a strong second-half performance, Villa were unable to pull off the comeback. The team fell just short, but looked sharp and dangerous at times, let down by a couple of poor moments in the first half. Laura Blindkilde was particularly impressive again. We now await news regarding the Conti Cup and look forward to an important league game against Bristol City next weekend.
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AUTHOR | GEORGIA HOMER
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Author’s UTV PODCAST archive Georgia Homer
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