ColumnMatt Beard on character, Höbinger's quality and LFC Women v Man City at Anfield
It was some game at the weekend and it reminded me a little bit of the Chelsea game we won 4-3 at the end of last season.
I’ve looked at their goals and defensively we didn’t get in good positions, so unfortunately it’s just one of those things. But we showed great character and I was really pleased with the three points.
To be honest, we should have been out of sight again because we had so many good chances to finish them off but didn’t take them. The character, however, was immense.
Our performances have been OK, we are still playing catch-up and it’s only going to get better for us hopefully.
Kappy [Cornelia Kapocs] scored her first goal for the club and what an effort it was – what a way to open her account!
I was really pleased for her. She came in late and has had to play catch-up, but she took her chance and did well for us.
Marie Höbinger was back at her best and what composure she showed in the 95th minute when taking that penalty – the placing of it was fantastic. And the free-kick, what a goal that was!
When we saw their wall from the bench, we fancied it to go in. That’s what Marie is capable of with her left and right foot. It was such a great finish and I thought her performance was excellent.
Sophie Roman Haug led the line superbly well for us and that was 100 per cent a penalty.
When we spoke to her afterwards, she said her eyes lit up when she saw the cross come in and was pushed by Ashleigh Neville.
I felt we deserved that because we should have had one the week before with Fuka [Nagano] at West Ham.
The players deserve a lot of credit because they were upset at half-time because of the injury to Sofie [Lundgaard]. When we changed to the 3-4-3, it worked really well for us.
We head back to Anfield on Sunday and hopefully it will be a great occasion (kick-off 3pm BST).
It will obviously be a tough game against Manchester City. Gareth [Taylor] has assembled a really good squad there over a few windows and we know how tough it will be. But we are looking forward to it.
We know we can beat anyone on our day – we have proved that if you look at the wins over Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal last season. So we have the belief going into this game.
We certainly haven’t had much luck at Anfield in recent seasons if you look back to Missy Bo Kearns’ goal being disallowed in the derby when it wasn’t offside. You need that bit of luck on your side sometimes.
We’ve said to the players to go out and enjoy it, and play like we know we can because we are in good form.
It’s going to be a good occasion. Our fans were fantastic at Tottenham and we got the win for them. Hopefully we can do them proud at Anfield on Sunday.
Thank you for your continued support.
YNWA,
Matt
Matt Beard was speaking to Liverpoolfc.com's Steve Hunter