Chelsea Women had to settle for a point against Liverpool on Sunday and captain Magdalena Eriksson insists the Blues need to find a way to win these tight games if they are going to keep pace at the top of the Barclays FA Women’s Super League.
The Blues are unbeaten in the league this season, and have beaten both Arsenal and Manchester City at Kingsmeadow, only for draws at Brighton and Liverpool to leave us in third place heading in to the Christmas break, albeit with a game in hand on the top two.We created plenty of chances to win the game on Sunday, with Bethany England seeing a shot cleared off the line and Sophie Ingle hitting the post and Maren Mjelde skimming the bar to name a few, but despite the chances, and coming from a goal down after England cancelled out Niamh Charles’ early, strike Eriksson and co. had to settle for our point, leaving our captain to reflect on a tough afternoon.‘We want to win against every team that we play and that’s our objective going into every game is the three points, so we’re obviously very disappointed we’re just getting one point,’ said Eriksson after the game.‘We need to figure out not only how to beat the best teams in the league but also go away from home and win these games are massively important.‘We just need to regroup, come together after the break and keep working on what we’ve been doing. I feel like we have been heading in the right direction and this is just a setback.’
Sunday’s match was made even harder due to heavy rainfall in the area but the surface passed a thorough inspection 45 minutes prior to kick-off and the game went ahead.
The Blues conceded inside five minutes when we failed to clear the ball which enabled Charles to poke home at the back post, to register Liverpool’s third goal of the season. England put us back on level terms 10 minutes later when Guro Reiten whipped in a cross for our forward to direct her header past former Blue Fran Kitching in goal. While Eriksson was happy with the response in testing conditions she was frustrated at not completing the comeback.
She added: ‘The conditions changed the game, it changed the game into a scrappy fight and it was really hard to play out there but it is what it is. We wanted to make the best out of the conditions but we couldn’t today.
‘We put ourselves in a difficult position early from the start and then we had to fight to get the one goal which was a good comeback but then we couldn’t get a second one in.’
The Swedish centre-back has been playing her domestic football at Chelsea for three years now, and since her move to England, Eriksson has noticed the developments of the league and women’s football in the country.
‘I think it’s growing since I came to England three years ago,’ she said. ‘The league and women’s football has got better and better every year. The tempo is getting higher and its getting more difficult. All the teams are getting better and women’s football is moving in a positive direction.’
Chelsea’s next game will be at Kingsmeadow against Reading in the WSL on Sunday 5 January. The match kicks off at an earlier time of 12.30pm and tickets can be purchased here.
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