London City Lionesses boss Melissa Phillips says that latest opponents Crystal Palace will offer a unique challenge to her side.
The Eagles provide the opposition for The Pride’s second FA Women’s Championship fixture of the season at Princes Park this afternoon. Both sides won their opening match and there is a chance that this afternoon’s victors could climb to the top of the league.
Speaking to FAWSL Full-Time ahead of the match, London City Lionesses boss Phillips said that Crystal Palace offer her side a unique challenge with The Eagles capable of playing some of the most exciting attacking football in the league.
“Palace will be a very unique challenge just based off their style that they set up;” Phillips said. “They are a very organised team on both sides of the ball and they offer a very unique challenge in the way that they attack and defend.
“It’ll be a fun match up for us but we take a lot of pride in being difficult to break down and when we finished the league last year, we set some goals in terms of getting more clean sheets and especially at home, we want to put in good performances and make Princes Park a very difficult place to visit.
“We have our goals and objectives set out for the game but we know that Palace will be a very difficult match up.”
Looking back on last weekend’s fantastic result at Liverpool, Phillips said that the team would not get carried away with the victory but they did celebrate.
She added “It was a fantastic performance from the group as a whole, especially with it being away at Liverpool in-front of a good crowd, it’s not an easy place to play.
“We opened the season really well, we set a lot of goals as a team for what we wanted to accomplish in that game and focusing on our own performance. We were able to hit some of those objectives and learnt a lot about ourselves in the process.
“We have a really grounded group, a really hard-working, humble group. All eyes are now on Palace and the next opportunity that we have.
“It’s a really long, competitive season so we will be taking it one game at a time. We had time to celebrate the win (at Liverpool) and reflected on what went well and identified opportunities for growth for us but now all eyes ahead on Palace.”
The FA Women’s Championship fixture between London City Lionesses and Crystal Palace kicks-off at 2pm. Fans can still purchase their tickets by clicking here.
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