Everton clinched a controversial 1-0 win over Liverpool their first win of the season.
Referee Abigail Byrne, pointed to the spot after Fuka Nagano’s challenge on Honoka Hayashi, which looked to be outside the box. Dutch striker Katja Snoeijs converted the spot-kick.
Liverpool manager Matt Beard said the decision completely changed the match. “You’ve got the referee, the assistant referee, the linesman and the fourth official, all have got unblocked views. Even I saw the contact was about a yard outside the box”.
The Reds manager was also left frustrated by missed chances: “We need to do better when we’re getting opportunities. When you’re chasing games, sometimes you make erratic decisions and that’s something we need to get better at.
“We were super aggressive today and our press was good. We forced them into a lot of turnovers. There are positives we can take, if you look at the players’ performance and how hard they’ve worked today, they’ve left nothing on that pitch. We can be proud of that”.
The result all adds to a troubled Liverpool season hit by injuries.
90+8’ Full time at Goodison Park.
Everton get three points in the last #BarclaysWSL Merseyside derby at the historic Blues venue!#EVELIV pic.twitter.com/Fzts8SFdWY
— MerseySportLive (@merseysportlive) November 17, 2024
Everton, also hampered by an injury crisis, clinched their first three points of the season in what was been billed as the last League derby at Goodison Park.
Toffees manager Brian Sorensen said: “I’m so delighted, for the girls, they really deserve it, because it’s been challenging every week. It was the first week this week where we had a bit of consistency in training, and we could get our game plan right.
“We needed to kick off the season, so no better way to do that than Goodison Park. I know that we’re going in the right direction despite having key players out”.
Everton’s have shown plenty of fight this season, but 3 points from 7 games was a lowly return.
“The girls left everything on the pitch, I know they have that in them, they’ve been doing that when we played Leicester, we gave everything and it was dominating. It was chance after chance, but at the end of the day we lost 1-0, but I’ve never had any questions about the determination.
“Five games in a row the opposition scored in the first 15 minutes and then we didn’t concede after that, that’s also character, we don’t give up, we work hard and stick to the plan and that’s what we continue to do”.
