Match Pack: Liverpool

At A Glance

Aston Villa Women will be aiming to get their first points of the new season on the board this weekend when they visit Liverpool at Prenton Park.

Carla Ward's side began the 2023/24 campaign with a heartbreaking defeat at home to Manchester United last weekend, but there were positives aplenty to take into their next encounter.

Rachel Daly scored her first goal of the new season and will come up against a Liverpool side she has already had success against in Villa colours.

Liverpool shocked many around the Barclays Women's Super League last weekend when they went to Emirates Stadium and took all three points away with them.

Miri Taylor struck minutes into the second half as Matt Beard's side held out for a memorable win against Arsenal in front of a near-sellout crowd in north London.

The Reds, who were promoted back into the top flight in 2022, will be wanting to make an early statement of intent with another positive result this time around.

Opposition Watch

Led by the aforementioned Matt Beard, Liverpool are hoping to kick on having made a successful return to the WSL last season.

The Reds finished seventh after a solid 22/23 campaign and even came away from Villa Park with a point in May following a pulsating 3-3 draw.

The likes of Taylor Hinds and Emma Koivisto have been mainstays in the side and they will be confident of adding to the three points they've already accrued this season.

The Last Meeting

It's almost a year since Villa's last trip to Liverpool in the WSL.

As has come to be expected, our meeting in November 2022 was a tight and tense one.

But Rachel Daly struck from the penalty spot in the second half to seal the victory for Villa.

Standout Stats

• The only previous WSL matches between Liverpool and Aston Villa came last season, with this exact fixture ending 1-0 to Villa at Prenton Park in November.
• In the most recent league game between Liverpool and Aston Villa, the Villans took a 1-0 lead before going 2-1 and 3-2 down before eventually drawing 3-3.
• Aston Villa haven’t started a WSL season with two league defeats since their first campaign in the competition in 2020-21. Indeed, manager Carla Ward has only lost on MD1 and MD2 of one previous WSL season and that was also 2020-21, when she was Birmingham’s manager.
• Rachel Daly scored Aston Villa’s goal in their 2-1 defeat to Man Utd on MD1. It was the sixth time Daly had scored in and lost a WSL game, with only Fara Williams (9), Nikita Parris (7) and Jessica Clarke (7) doing so more often in WSL history.
• Aston Villa’s Adriana Leon came off the bench to assist Rachel Daly’s goal in their 2-1 defeat to Man Utd on MD1 of this season’s WSL. She’s made 49 WSL appearances and could become the third Canadian to make 50, after Jessie Fleming (56) and Shelina Zadorsky (54).
• Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly has been involved in 11 goals in her last six away WSL appearances (8 goals, 3 assists), scoring or assisting at least once in all six. The only English player to have a hand in at least one goal in seven consecutive away appearances is Nikita Parris (eight between September 2018 and March 2019 for Man City).

The Boss