Bragging rights will be at stake when Liverpool Women lock horns with Everton Women in Sunday’s Merseyside derby at Anfield.
The Reds head into the weekend in sixth place in the Women’s Super League table, while the Toffees are five points worse off in eighth position.
Match preview
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Liverpool are sitting in the top half of the standings after collecting seven, drawing four and losing nine of their 20 league matches this season.
The Reds have taken four points from their last two matches, claiming a narrow 2-1 away victory over Brighton & Hove Albion, before playing out a 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur in last Sunday’s home meeting.
Spurs turned the game in their favour following Sophie Roman Haug‘s early opener, before the Norwegian forward scored her second goal of the game to ensure the spoils were shared.
Liverpool have now taken 10 points from their last five home league games, representing a significant improvement on the poor run of form that saw them collect just two points from their opening five WSL home matches of the season.
They will hope home advantage can be the difference maker in Sunday’s derby clash, as the hosts look to claim their first WSL victory over their local rivals since recording a 3-1 win in May 2019.
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Everton head into the weekend on the back of an underwhelming run of results, having won just one of their previous five league matches.
They followed a 3-1 defeat against Arsenal with a commanding home win over Crystal Palace, before they fell to a 2-0 loss in their away meeting with Manchester United.
The Toffees would have been satisfied with a 1-1 draw against Manchester City, but the confidence gain from that result may have been somewhat diminished by last Saturday’s 3-2 defeat in their home clash with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Brian Sorensen‘s side gave up the lead on two occasions before Nikita Parris netted a 93rd-minute winner to condemn them to their fourth home loss of the WSL season, leaving them in eighth spot with 20 points from as many league games.
Their hopes of taking maximum points from Sunday’s derby may be tempered by the fact they have won just one of their 10 top-flight away matches this season (D3, L6), although they have won each of their previous three WSL away meetings with Liverpool.
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Team News
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Liverpool are without Sofie Lundgaard and Zara Shaw due to knee injuries, while Chelsea loanee Alejandra Bernabe is sidelined with a muscle problem.
Amber Whiteley has revealed that Leanne Kiernan is unlikely to be available after she missed the draw with Tottenham through injury.
The Liverpool interim boss could opt for consistency by naming an unchanged lineup, which would see Haug start back-to-back games after netting a brace last weekend.
As for the Toffees, they are unable to call upon Megan Finnigan, Aurora Galli, Inma Gabbaro and Louna Ribadeira.
Forward Kelly Gago remains a doubt for Sunday’s fixture, having been forced to miss the last two matches due to an injury issue.
Attacker Rikke Madsen will be hoping for a recall after dropping down to the bench for the recent defeat to Brighton.
Liverpool Women possible starting lineup:
Laws; Clark, Fisk, Bonner, Hinds; Kerr, Nagano; Smith, Hobinger, Holland; Haug
Everton Women possible starting lineup:
Brosnan; K.Holmgaard, Fernandez, Stenevik, S. Holmgaard; Wheeler, Vanhaevermaet, Hayashi; T.Payne, Madsen, Snoeijs
We say: Liverpool Women 1-1 Everton Women
While Everton have struggled to produce their best on the road this season, they tend to fare well in WSL meetings with their local rivals, having avoided defeat in each of their last six head-to-head league games.
With that in mind, we think the Toffees will do enough to extend that unbeaten run by holding Liverpool to a draw in Sunday’s fixture.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
