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Everton manager Brian Sørensen says that this weekend’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Crystal Palace will be a tough test for his side.
The Toffees take on The Eagles at Walton Hall Park on Saturday afternoon.
Crystal Palace travel to Merseyside on the back of a 3-1 victory over Aston Villa last time out. The South Londoners have been bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League table for much of the season but they have now boosted their chances of survival. When speaking to the media ahead of this weekend’s game, Everton boss Sørensen said that Crystal Palace won’t be easy opponents.
“It’s like any other game, we have to be well-prepared, understand their threats and try to neutralise them,” Sørensen said. “We will have to be at our best but then also match them in energy and fight.
“I expect a tough game. They were thrown a lifeline last weekend and they know that if they can do the same tomorrow, they will be in a good place going into the last five games of the season.
“We know it’s going to be tough but we have prepared well this week. We’ve had good training sessions and we are ready to take them on.”
Crystal Palace recently appointed Leif Smerud as their new head coach and he has got some good performances from his side so far. Sørensen believes that The Eagles are utilising their strengths more under their new boss.
He said “I think they play to their strengths a bit more. They’re defending as a unit but also, they’re finding the moments to attack, that’s the biggest change.
“They have good footballers in that team; if you look at their squad, they have 25 very good players. They’ve had some injuries but they brought in a lot of players in the last two transfer windows. They have a very competitive squad and for some reason, they haven’t got it to click but there are other teams like us before Christmas that have been struggling.
“It’s going to be exciting to see how it plays out in the last six games. We want to make sure that we don’t have to look down by winning the game tomorrow.”
Victory for Everton this weekend would almost certainly confirm the club’s place in next season’s Barclays Women’s Super League, however, Sørensen says that his side are just focusing on performing well and that should in-turn deliver more points.
He said “It’s really important [to win] and we know that. It’s 90 minutes of football and anything could happen but we just need to make sure that we are sharp, ready and display our best selves. We will see in six games where we are all at but I’m very confident with the squad that we have at the minute, that we haven’t got our last three points of this season.”
Everton’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Crystal Palace kicks-off at 2pm on Saturday afternoon. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
