Aston Villa head coach Carla Ward says that her side will go to Chelsea full of confidence and that The Villans will look to be competitive in the game.
Ward’s side take on the Barclays Women’s Super League champions at Kingsmeadow this afternoon. Aston Villa suffered two narrow losses against Chelsea last season – Sam Kerr netted a 92rd-minute winner the last time the two sides met back in March.
Chelsea go into the match off the back of an 8-0 UEFA Women’s Champions League victory over Albanian side KS Vllaznia in midweek. While The Blues are in good form, Ward wants Aston Villa to look at what they have achieved themselves this season.
“You saw the form that Chelsea were in when they played in midweek and I hope it is not going to be one of those days,” Ward said when speaking in the pre-match press conference.
“They are a good side but so are we, we are playing some of the best football that we’ve ever seen from this group. We can take a lot of confidence from the position that we are in and the pressure will not be on us, everyone will expect Chelsea to win the game.
“We will go there and do what we can do and hopefully, be competitive in that.”
Ward went on to heap praise on Chelsea and their manager Emma Hayes for their achievements over the years.
She said “They are an unbelievable group and they are a football club that I admire massively. The work that Emma (Hayes) has done over the years has been sensational. They are a team that know how to win football matches, you saw that when we played them last year. It doesn’t matter what Chelsea turn up, they know how to win football matches and we have to do everything we can to try and stop that.
“They are a team that I admire massively. They are a joy to watch when you are not playing against them but when you are playing against them, you are thinking ‘get to 90 minutes’.
“We are going to go there and try to be competitive, we’ve done that in every game this season, not one team has outplayed us yet. I think it is really important that we continue that.”
The Barclays Women’s Super League fixture between Chelsea and Aston Villa kicks-off at 2pm.
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