Reading Women v Manchester City Women – Match Preview, Team News and Prediction

Manchester City travel to Berkshire and a date with Reading for their final game of the WSL season. The blues need a point to secure third place ahead of neighbours Manchester United, as long as the reds don’t beat leaders and title chasers Chelsea by ten clear goals.

The match sees the blues finish a remarkable turnaround in fortunes, following their early season woes that saw them struggling in the bottom half of the table. But, since a 1-0 defeat at Chelsea in February, City have won eight WSL and twelve matches in all competitions, which has put them on course to take a place in next season’s Champions League at United’s expense.

Reading have endured a difficult campaign and have not won in nine WSL matches going into the game at City. An eight-match unbeaten run between October and February cemented their place in the WSL, and victory on Sunday, coupled with defeats for West Ham and Brighton, will see the Royals finish sixth in the league.

Team News

Manager Gareth Taylor says he could include Vicky Losada in City’s squad for the final match, but Jess Park is still absent. The Spaniard has not featured for City since February, but is pushing for a return to action. Taylor also confirmed that City have no new injury worries ahead of the match at Reading.

We are similar to the other night. We had a couple of little nicks in Wednesday’s game against Birmingham that we have had to manage over the last couple of days.

“We are expecting the same numbers, maybe adding Vicky Losada to that and maybe Jess Park too, although Vicky is ahead of Jess so it might be a little bit too soon for her.”

And Taylor confirmed that his team selection would not be based with next week’s FA Cup Final in mind. “No, we can’t be in a position to look to the Cup Final. That will take care of itself. We have business to finish off on Sunday.

“One of the strengths of the squad has been that we don’t look beyond the next game. We are not secure on Champions League. We have worked hard to get to that position. We will focus on that job and then the job on Sunday.

“We want to get the job done and that will allow us to go into next Sunday with confidence. We are going to try our very best.”

Prediction

City are on a great run of form and take on a Reading side that is lacking confidence. The blues will want to finish the season in style and claim that Champions League spot outright.

Reading Women 0-2 Manchester City Women