City Off To Winning League Cup Start
Goals in either half from Aimee Palmer and Hannah Cain saw off Liverpool as Leicester made it three wins from three in the early stages of their 2023/24 campaign despite former Fox Natasha Flint's equaliser just before the break in Burton.
There were five changes to the starting XI that beat Everton in the Barclays Women's Super League last weekend with CJ Bott, Deanne Rose and Cain getting their first starts of the season, while Julie Thibaud and Palmer came back into the team after lining up against Bristol City.
It was a bright start for Leicester, against a side who also went into the game unbeaten, and yet to concede a goal. But that looked under threat as City saw more of the ball in the opening stages, and were causing problems with the pace of Rose up front.
The brightest chances came through Missy Goodwin with her skillful play down the left wing, allowing her the opportunities to strike a goal, but unfortunately she saw her efforts head over the bar. The Liverpool backline was beaten half-an-hour in, though.
Once awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box, Palmer took aim and curled an effort over the wall to take her tally for the season up to two, after scoring a wonder strike on the opening day against her former club Bristol City.
Minutes before the half-time whistle, Liverpool got themselves back level and it was former City player Flint to open the scoring for them. As the ball fell to her in the box, she managed to make half a yard for herself before unleashing an effort past Janina Leitzig.
Despite conceding just before the whistle, Leicester came out strongest in the second half and soon got themselves back in front. Goodwin once again caused problems on the wing for the Reds' defence and her low ball eventually found its way through to Cain, who finished low and hard past the Liverpool 'keeper with a left-footed strike from close range.
In order to retain the lead, Willie Kirk made several changes and introduced experience into the team in the form of Lena Petermann and Janice Cayman to keep Liverpool at bay.
Keen to push from the front, the Foxes were implementing players into higher positions, but this caused spaces at the back for Matt Beard's side to exploit on the break, which they attempted to do, but strong defending from the likes of Sophie Howard and smart saves from Leitzig kept them at the bay.
With 30 seconds left of injury time, the visitors had their best chance to equalise with a free-kick in a similar position to where Palmer scored hers from, but Leicester managed to deal with any danger and held on to pick up their first points in Group B of the competition, and remain the only side in the WSL to keep their 100 per cent record.