Everton Ladies and Birmingham City Women are both looking for their first points of this Women's Super League season, and they meet at Walton Hall Park on Saturday in gameweek three of this campaign.
Willie Kirk and Scott Booth will hope that the international break has given their sides a chance to refresh and start again given their poor start in their opening two fixtures.
Match preview
© Reuters
Everton were dealt a tough challenge at the start of this campaign, facing two of the expected title contentenders, Manchester City and Chelsea, in their opening matches before the international week.
Kirk's team lost both of those games by a scoreline of 4-0, placing them at the bottom of the WSL, below Leicester City, Birmingham and Reading on goal difference.
The Toffees struggled to create many chances last time out against Emma Hayes's reigning champions, who had a total of 27 shots in that game, compared to the away side's five at Kingsmeadow.
It is a disappointing start to the season for Everton, who have set themselves the goal of finishing in the top three, and Kirk has admitted that Saturday's outing against Birmingham is a 'must-win' even at this early stage in the fixture list.
After the first three games of last season, Everton had picked up six points, which they will not be able to manage this year, but three points this weekend seems vital given their aspirations for this campaign.
Birmingham have also not enjoyed the start of this season, especially their first home game last time out when they welcomed Brighton & Hove Albion to St Andrew's.
The Seagulls ran out as comfortable 5-0 winners two weeks ago, thanks to goals from Victoria Williams, Inessa Kaagman, Danielle Carter, Emma Koivisto and Kayleigh Green.
Booth's team have not scored in their opening two WSL fixtures, but they will hope that Lucy Quinn and Louise Quinn can help inspire their club teammates in front of goal after helping Ireland beat Australia over the international week.
With the table still in the early stages of the season, three points for either of these two teams could see them jump up as many as four or six positions, but after their poor starts, both Everton and Birmingham will be desperate to record their first win of the campaign.
When comparing the two squads, Everton are favourites to take the points back to Merseyside with them on Saturday, given the Champions League experience in their group.
- L
- L
- L
- L
Team News
Kirk made three changes to the side for their last outing against Chelsea from the team which started against Man City, with Claire Emslie, Hanna Bennison and Nicoline Sorensen coming in for Toni Duggan, Kenza Dali and Rikke Sevecke.
Everton lined up in a 5-3-2 formation for their first two WSL games, but the Toffees could opt for a more attacking lineup in a 4-3-3 formation, including Duggan, Anna Anvegard and Sorensen in a front three.
Goalkeeper Sandy MacIver will be keen to record her first clean sheet of the season after conceding eight goals in the first two games, but she will be looking for the help of defenders Megan Finnigan, Nathalie Bjorn, Gabrielle George and Danielle Turner in front of her.
Cecilie Sandvej, Harriet Scott, Jamie Finn and Eleanor Ryan-Doyle came into Birmingham's starting lineup against Brighton, but Booth may revert back to the team which only lost 1-0 to Tottenham on the opening day, given a disappointing performance against the Seagulls.
Sarah Ewens is likely to lead the line for the away side, and she will be hoping to open her WSL account with her new club sooner rather than later, and will be supported in attack by Lucy Quinn and Veatriki Sarri.
Everton Ladies possible starting lineup:
MacIver; Turner, George, Finnigan, Bjorn; Galli, Christiansen, Bennison; Anvegard, Duggan, Sorensen
Birmingham City Women possible starting lineup:
Ramsey; Holloway, Lawley, Louise Quinn, Smith; Whipp, Robertson, Pennock; Sarri, Ewens, Lucy Quinn
We say: Everton Ladies 2-0 Birmingham City Women
Everton are expected to be extremely determined to claim three points on home turf this Saturday, and they will be confident of doing so against a side which is predicted to be in a relegation battle this season.
The international break should have given both sides the chance to improve on their weaknesses that they showed in the first two games, but Everton's quality should see them over the line against Booth's team.
Top tip
Sammy Wynne
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Everton Ladies win with a probability of 62.13%. A draw had a probability of 21.2% and a win for Birmingham City Women had a probability of 16.67%.
The most likely scoreline for a Everton Ladies win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.1%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.92%) and 2-1 (9.91%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.07%), while for a Birmingham City Women win it was 0-1 (5.12%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 6.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Everton Ladies would win this match.
