Morgan’s Praise Ahead Of ‘Massive’ Cup Tie

- Jonathan Morgan previews Wednesday’s FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup Semi-Final tie with Bristol City
- The Foxes head to Twerton Park to face the FA Women’s Super League side in the last four
- City are bidding to become the first second tier side to reach the final of the competition

The Foxes are the only FA Women’s Championship side left in the 2020/21 competition, and became just the second division two side to reach the semi-finals courtesy of their 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace in mid-January.

They also sit top of the league standings, despite their most recent fixture – a clash with Palace at Hayes Lane – being postponed due to adverse weather conditions.

Speaking on the eve of their semi-final tie against Bristol City, Morgan told the media in his pre-match press conference: “It’s massive. Any cup semi-final is a privilege to be in, even more so during this pandemic where there’s a lot of teams that can’t play at the moment.

“The fact that myself and the girls get to put themselves up against another WSL team is brilliant.

“It’s a bit nerve-wracking going into your first elite semi-final. It’s uncharted territory for us, but all of the investment and the work that’s been done behind the scenes with Leicester is starting to really pay dividends.

“I think we should be really proud of ourselves that we can say we’re in the semi-finals of the League Cup.”

Morgan says there has been no alteration to City’s preparations, retaining the ethos of effort and detailed work in an attempt to beat another FA Women’s Super League side, having already beaten top-tier outfit Birmingham City in the quarter-finals on penalties.

“It’s about trying to be as normal as possible,” Morgan explained. “We’ve not done anything differently, we’ve not changed any of our structure or schedules. All our training sessions have been identical to what we would have done for any other game.

“We’ve set ourselves up tactically to hopefully exploit Bristol. We’ve also worked hard on the training ground, and reemphasised the word ‘hard’ and the fact that working hard is what’s going to get us the possibility of getting us into the next round, into the final.

“More importantly, we know that we’re not the favourites. We’re rightly so the underdogs, and that’s what I’ll be reiterating to the girls – to make sure that they give themselves a good showing out there tomorrow.

“They’re an established WSL team, and Ebony Salmon, she’s on fire at the minute. She’s a very, very dangerous striker where she’s obviously pulling them through at this moment in time.”

City’s style of play will also remain untouched, with Morgan stressing the importance of dominating possession of the ball against a side who recorded their first league victory of the season last time out.

“It’s no secret that we like to be a possession-based team,” Morgan said when asked about how Leicester will approach the match. “That’s not changed.

“We’ve not changed anything that we’re going to do, in terms of how we’ve approached this game, in terms of trying to have good ball retention – that’s exactly the same.

“We’re just trying to focus on where tactically, we can out strengthen or outmanoeuvre them. Hopefully, we’ll be able to exploit them and score a few goals.”