Liverpool Women suffer 4-1 home defeat as Manchester City go top of WSL
Liverpool Women saw their run of victories in the WSL come to a shuddering halt as they were beaten at home by Manchester City.
The Reds had won their past three league outings and hadn’t been beaten in the competition since a 2-0 reverse to Arsenal back on 28 January, but against a marching City side they were undone 4-1 as their opponents went top of the table.
The games was essentially lost inside the opening half an hour as an eight-minute period saw Lauren Hemp, Jess Park and league top-scorer Khadija Shaw all score to make it 3-0 after 24 minutes.
Once the Jamaican added a second after half time it became a matter of damage control at Prenton Park, although Taylor Hinds’ return from injury at half-time was one encouraging note for Liverpool.
The midfielder’s long-range strike in the 84th minute cannoned back off the post and went in off City keeper Khiara Keating for a late consolation, in her first action since being ruled out with a problem picked up in January training.
Taylor Hinds return for Liverpool Women provides silver lining
Matt Beard was disappointed with the manner of the defeat after the game, telling the club’s official website: “If you look how well we started. We concede, in my opinion, a sloppy goal – I think we can deal with that. Then we just don’t recover from that moment.
“We start becoming a little bit hesitant, stop doing what was working well for us in that first 15-minute period. And we got punished; all three goals are preventable from our perspective, rash decisions. It’s frustrating because we’ve had good chances ourselves today.
“The toughest thing for me is they haven’t had to work hard for the goals, and that’s the most disappointing thing for me.”
On finishing top four he added: “Yeah, of course it is [still the target]. We finished seventh last year – we wanted to improve on that and we have already done that so far this year.
“Chelsea and Man City are leagues above everyone else in the division, leagues above. You’ve just got to make sure you [don’t] switch off in those moments. We’ve made great progress.”
The result leaves Liverpool Women in fourth but having played a game more than Manchester United one point immediately below them.
In other Liverpool news, Jurgen Klopp is predicted to make multiple changes for the return to Premier League action against Brighton.
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