London City Lionesses head coach Melissa Phillips wants her side to be difficult to break down when they face Birmingham City in the FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup group stage this afternoon.
The Pride will end the year at St Andrew’s, it has been a successful 2022 for the Dartford-based club with London City Lionesses being top of the Barclays Women’s Championship table.
London City Lionesses edged out Birmingham City 3-2 when the two sides met in the league at Princes Park back in early November. The Pride conceded two set piece goals in that game and head coach Phillips wants her side to be more difficult to break down this afternoon.
“I definitely think it’ll be a cagey contest,” Phillips said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “Both teams have a number of competitive players in their squads.
“It was a high-scoring affair last time, both teams are capable of putting the ball in the back of the net but we’ve also been very resolute behind the ball throughout the first half of the season. I think that’s something that we will take a lot of pride in and we will go up there and look to put in a performance where we are very difficult to break down. We also want to improve in defending set pieces after conceding twice last time.”
London City Lionesses will travel to St Andrew’s for the league fixture in February. Phillips acknowledges the fact that the Blues are tough opponents and she sees this afternoon’s fixture as a useful exercise to do some homework ahead of the two clubs’ upcoming battle in the Barclays Women’s Championship.
She said “When we met Birmingham at home last time, it was a really exciting match and maybe the scoreline was closer than the match indicated. We conceded from two set pieces but we scored from three set pieces of our own.
“There was a lot of even play in open play. Birmingham have been a very competitive side in the league and they defeated Bristol the following weekend so we know it is going to be really competitive.
“This is going to be a really unique game for us because it’s not often that we draw league opponents in a cup game. This game gives us the opportunity to go on the road up to Birmingham to see what it is like before we play them in the league.
“We will be focused on ourselves and looking to continue carrying forward the momentum and form from the first half of the season. We will be looking to end the year on a high.”
London City Lionesses’ FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup fixture at Birmingham City kicks-off at 2pm.
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