LCFC Women Kick Off Pre-Season vs. OHL
The two King Power International clubs came together for a friendly fixture at LCFC Women’s training base, playing three 30-minute halves in a bid to increase fitness ahead of the new Barclays Women’s Super League campaign, which begins away to Everton on the weekend of 10/11 September.
Leuven opened the scoring when Jill Janssens crossed for Hannah Eurlings to find the net with a controlled finish into the bottom corner on 11 minutes, and that’s how it stayed at the end of a competitive encounter.
A total of 18 players were handed minutes by the Foxes, though defender Ashleigh Plumptre is yet to join back up the squad after featuring for Nigeria in their run to the semi-finals of the Women’s African Cup of Nations.
Speaking to LCFC TV at full-time, manager Lydia Bedford gave her thoughts on the run-out: “Today was a great opportunity to try lots of different things. We played in three 30 minutes to rotate and we were looking for all players to play a minimum of 45 to 60 minutes. In general, it was great to see so many of them get minutes.”
The Belgian side, meanwhile, managed by Jimmy Coenraets, compete in the Belgian Women’s Super League and provided a stern test first up for Bedford’s charges, who will face another six pre-season matches throughout August and September.
They are back in action on Saturday, hosting Barclays Women’s Championship team Bristol City in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Belvoir Drive (2pm kick-off).
The visitors, who are on a week-long visit to Leicester following Leicester City men’s trip to Leuven earlier this month, undertook training at Belvoir Drive on Tuesday, in preparation for the fixture.
Able to utilise the impressive facilities on offer, they also joined LCFC Women for some team building exercises and games across the week, which ends with Friday’s fixture between City’s WSL Academy and OH Leuven Academy (1:30pm kick-off).
All times BST.