Match reportLFC Women beaten by Man Utd Women in pre-season friendly
Liverpool FC Women lost 3-1 to Manchester United Women in Wednesday’s pre-season friendly at Carrington.
Natasha Flint got the Reds’ goal in the behind-closed-doors contest, with the forward’s poacher’s effort on the stroke of half-time reducing their arrears to 2-1 after Ella Toone’s brace inside the first quarter of an hour.
Gemma Bonner hit the crossbar for the visitors – for whom Niamh Fahey and Mia Enderby went off injured either side of the break – soon after the restart, but United secured their win when Geyse scored with a little under 20 minutes remaining.
Liverpool enjoyed a solid start with new signing Sophie Roman Haug seeing a goal ruled out for offside, but Matt Beard’s side were then undone by two moments of quality from Toone.
First, United’s No.7 nudged home Leah Galton’s cross with a close-range poke before then breaking in behind the Reds’ backline and lifting a classy finish over Teagan Micah.
The hosts very nearly extended their advantage midway through the first half when Geyse headed Toone’s delivery off the underside of the bar, but Liverpool’s struggles worsened after that narrow escape when captain Fahey was forced off.
However, Beard’s team recovered to finish the half strongly and could have pulled one back when Emma Koivisto retrieved possession inside United’s penalty area and squared unselfishly to Haug, though the sliding No.10 was just unable to connect at the back post.
But the Reds did halve the deficit as Fahey’s replacement Bonner found Koivisto with a lovely pass and the Finn’s cross looped up off a defender, with Flint on hand to bundle in the loose ball.
PHOTOS
By Nick Taylor
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Beard made five changes at the interval and one of the new introductions, Marie Höbinger, made an immediate impact.
Höbinger’s set-piece delivery was causing United plenty of problems and the Austria international almost scored direct from a corner before Bonner rattled the bar on the rebound.
Flint then curled a long-range effort narrowly off target and Ceri Holland’s low drive from an angle was tipped wide as Liverpool pressed for an equaliser.
Their momentum was checked by the break in play enforced by Enderby’s injury, though, and United went on to rubber-stamp their victory as Geyse’s hit beat Rachael Laws.
TEAM
LFC Women: Micah (Laws, 64), Fahey (Bonner, 37), Fisk, Clark, Koivisto, Hinds (Daniels, 46), Taylor (Nagano, 46), Lundgaard (Höbinger, 46), Kearns (Holland, 46), Flint, Haug (Enderby, 46 (Matthews, 64)).
NEXT UP
Liverpool visit Leicester City Women for their final friendly of the close-season on Sunday, with kick-off in the behind-closed-doors game set for 1pm BST.
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