Aston Villa Women will look to extend their seven-game unbeaten run as they host relegation-threatened Leicester City at Villa Park on Women’s Football Weekend.
A bumper crowd is expected at Villa Park for the WSL clash between Aston Villa Women and Leicester City Women. (Credit: Rajan Sangha)
After booking their place in the FA Cup semi-finals, the Villans return to Women’s Super League action on Sunday.
Cala Ward’s side are in fifth place in the league and will be looking to cement their place as the best of the rest outside of the top four. Meanwhile, the Foxes are bottom of the league but are only a point behind Brighton & Hove Albion.
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The Villa will head into Sunday’s contest in a confident manner having won their previous three WSL games, their longest winning streak in the competition. The West Midlands side are also unbeaten in seven games in all competitions with their 2-1 win against Manchester City last weekend earning them a place in the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in their history.
Aston Villa took the lead against Man City through Rachel Corsie before Deyna Castellanos equalised late in the first half. There were no goals in the second period, however Rachel Daly scored the match-winner in extra time to set up a last-four meeting with cup holders and four-time winners Chelsea.
The hosts are in fine form and they face a Leicester side who are glued to the bottom of the table and are struggling to score goals. The Foxes have endured another difficult season and know they need to start picking up points if they are to replicate last season’s great escape.
The league table as it stands. (Credit-BBC Sport)
Leicester come into this match off the back of their 1-0 defeat to fellow strugglers Tottenham Hotspur, which extended their winless run to three games. The relegation-threatened side have lost 12 of their 15 league matches and have also lost all 11 matches this season where they have conceded first.
The visitors have the worst goalscoring record in the league, finding the back of the net on just seven occasions all season. Willie Kirk’s side have scored two goals in their last five matches and are yet to score more than one goal in an away league game this season.
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Aston Villa are currently dealing with an injury crisis and will be missing as many as seven first team players for this WSL encounter. The home side will be without Emily Giedlnik and Ruesha Littlejohn, who are ruled out with ankle and knee injuries respectively.
Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah, Remi Allen and Simone Magill are close to returning but are not ready for first team action and therefore won’t be in the matchday squad against Leicester.
Natasha Harding and Meaghan Sargeant reman ruled out with long-term injuries with the duo unlikely to feature again this season.
The visitors will be without Jess Sigsworth, who continues her recovery from an anterior cruciate ligament injury. The striker has been out of action since February 2022, but is likely to make her return to the side before the end of the season.
Shannon O’Brien and Abbie McManus will also miss the clash at Villa Park.
Predicted Line-ups:
Aston Villa Women (4-3-3): Hampton; Mayling, Turner, Pattern, Corsie; Dali, Nobbs, Staniforth; Blindkilde, Hanson, Daly.
Leicester City Women (4-2-3-1): Leitzig; Baker, Howard, Plumptre, Nevin; Green, Mace; Whelan, Tierney, Cain; Siemsen.
Head-to-head
This will be the fourth time these two teams have met; this is a fixture that has been dominated by Aston Villa. The Villans boast a superior head-to-head record with Sunday’s opponents and have come out victorious in the three previous meetings.
This season, Leicester City welcomed Villa to the King Power Stadium, but were beaten 2-0. Daly gave her side the lead from the penalty spot before Gielnik sealed the victory three minutes from time to maintain Villa’s winning start to the season.
However, there is hope for the visitors, who could look to exploit Aston Villa’s worrying defensive record. Villa Women have been unable to keep a clean sheet in six of their last seven matches.
Unlike Leicester, the hosts have nothing to play for in the league with their attention now firmly on the Women’s FA Cup.
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Carla Ward
Although the Villa boss believes her side are playing exciting football, she is expecting a tough game against Leicester.
“We’ve tried to play in a different way this season that’s been exciting. I said in pre-season that we wanted to be an exciting team to watch and play in and I think we’re achieving that.
“It’s going to be a really, really tough game at the weekend. Leicester have picked up and they’re making it difficult for teams.
“We have to be at our best to take all three points.”
Willie Kirk
Kirk on the other hand has stressed the importance of taking points from Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.
“We know we need to pick up points and we need to pick up points in both of the next two games.
“If we don’t, it’s not going to be the end of the world. But we’re aware that we’re in the home stretch now.
“We’ll be going to Villa with a plan to first of all, take three points and if we can’t take three then we’ll take one.”
Sunday’s fixture at Villa Park has a 2pm kick-off.
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