Manchester City Women v Leicester Women – The Opposition

Manchester City Women welcome Leicester City Women to the Academy Stadium on Sunday as they continue to chase down neighbours and rivals United for the final Champions League spot.

The blues are three points behind the reds but have a game in hand. City have also closed the gap on the goal difference to just three, and a few goals against the Foxes wouldn’t do the blues any harm.

Leicester are in their debut season in the WSL and, after a difficult start which saw them rooted to the bottom of the table. However, four wins, coupled with poor form from Birmingham City has seen Leicester replaced at the foot of the table by Birmingham, despite the Foxes being on the receiving end of some severe thrashings this season.

Form

Leicester go into the match in Manchester on the back of four straight defeats, two of which were heavy with one being an absolute hammering. After beating West Ham 3-0 at home in February, Leicester were beaten 4-0 at Manchester United, then lost 3-2 at Everton. Successive home games against Chelsea, where they were slaughtered 9-0 in front of their home fans, before Arsenal put another five without reply past them. Leicester were also beaten 7-0 by Chelsea in the FA Cup, meaning they have conceded twenty-eight goals in just five matches.

Those defeats came after three successive victories lifted the team away from the bottom. A 3-1 win at Tottenham was followed by a 2-1 in at relegation rivals Birmingham City, before the home win against Wet Ham United.

Despite their troubles, Leicester are still seven points ahead of Birmingham, but the bottom placed side have a game in hand. That match against City at the Academy Stadium will take place on 4^th May.

Danger Players

Leicester have only scored fourteen league goals this season, and eight of them have scored two goals each. Jessica Sigsworth, Natasha Flint, Samantha Tierney and Jemma Purfield are joint top scorers.

Providing the assists are Shannon O’Brien and Molly Pike. Both have two each this season, while Sigsworth, Flint and Purfield each have one apiece.

Who’s the Boss?

Lydia Bedford is in the Leicester City hot seat. She took over as manager on 6^th December and was tasked with turning round the Foxes woes. After losing her first game in charge 4-0 at Arsenal, Leicester picked up their first three points of the season by beating Birmingham 2-0.

Last Time Out

Sunday’s game will be the fourth meeting of the season between the two, with City winning all the previous three by decent scorelines. The blues beat Leicester 6-0 in the FA Cup quarter-final in September, before winning 4-1 at Leicester in November’s WSL clash. The blues then won 5-0 at Leicester on their way to League Cup glory, and the faithful will be hoping for more goals on Sunday.