Manchester City women travel to Leicester on Sunday as they attempt to put their recent bad run of WSL form behind them.
The blues haven’t won a WSL match since beating Everton 4-0 on the opening day of the season, but a glimmer of hope was spotted when City played out an entertaining 2-2 draw with Manchester United at the Leigh Sports Village last month. City had Georgia Stanway sent off in that fixture but went on to take the lead through Bunny Shaw. The blues then had to come back from 2-1 to salvage a point.
They face a Leicester side that City have already beaten 6-0 in the FA Cup, and the home side have lost all five of their WSL fixtures so far this season. Leicester have scored 2 and conceded 13, 2 more than the blues have conceded, and City will be looking to put some distance between them and the Midlands side.
Manager Gareth Taylor said he hopes City will respond to the match being played at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium, as the blues always seem inspired in what he called the ‘main’ stadium.
“Everybody gets a lift when we have these fixtures played at main stadiums. “It’s something I always enjoyed doing when I went to various stadiums. It’s a great stadium and it’s a lift for everyone. For any team in the WSL that hosts a game in their home stadium, it’s amazing.
“We’re slightly different as we have our ‘mini stadium’, which simulates the Etihad, but when we played Everton, it was a real boost to play at such a fantastic stadium like that.”
The blues do seem to perform better in a bigger stadium. Last season, City won 2-0 at Villa Park and beat United 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium, and hopefully, playing at the King Power will help settle the blues as they look for a vital three points.
Team News
Georgia Stanway is believed to have served her suspension following her red card against United, according to Taylor, and may be available on Sunday. Taylor was less optimistic about the chances of Bunny Shaw starting for the blues. “She wasn’t able to get past the warm-up in training on Wednesday,” he explained the manager. “We decided to give her 24 hours, but she was unlikely to make it. We waited until 1pm and it was confirmed it was too painful and that there was a bit of swelling.
“She’s potentially touch-and-go for Sunday. We’ll have to see how the next few days go.”
Hayley Raso and Vicky Losada seemed to have come through Thursday’s match unscathed and may be available for Sunday’s match.
Prediction
City need a result against Leicester and given the home side’s form is worse than City’s the blues should take the points home. City should have too much in reserve for Leicester.
Leicester 0-4 Manchester City
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