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Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
With six games to play in the FAWSL season, Liverpool are six points off the top three and European qualification.
Liverpool Women visit local rivals Everton on Sunday as Matt Beard’s Reds continue their unexpected push to land a European place with as the 2023-24 FAWSL season enters its final stretch with six games remaining.
Last weekend’s results saw the Reds beat West Ham by a score of 3-1 to go level on points with Manchester United in fourth place, six points off Arsenal and the final European place with six games to play. That gap may in the end prove to be too great, but probably nobody expected Liverpool to be here when the season began.
“Everton raise their game massively for this derby and our form is good,” commented manager Matt Beard of his side’s upcoming challenge. “The pressure is on them because it’s at Goodison. It’s a different pressure when you are playing at your main stadium.
“They only really play the derby at Goodison Park. It’s going to be an interesting challenge. They’ve got a few injury problems, but they’ve still got a very good squad and I think they have been a bit unlucky with results.”
After consistently being the stronger side on Merseyside in recent seasons, Everton find themselves not just closer to the bottom of the table than the top this year but closer to the drop than they are to their local rivals.
The Blues, though, should be safe with an eight point cushion to last place Bristol and just the six games left in the season. Still, being eight points off last while they trail Liverpool by 14 points and are a full 26 behind leaders Chelsea isn’t where Everton want to be.
That’s not Liverpool’s problem on Sunday, though—all Beard and his Reds will care about is earning another three points and, just maybe, closing the gap on the league’s top three and with it keeping the possibility of a European finish alive.
“With Arsenal losing, our victory got us a little bit closer to them,” Beard added. “We just want to finish as high up the league table as we can. We are pleased with where we are and we’ve just got to make sure we carry on doing the right things.”
