Blues Narrowly Beaten By London City Lionesses
Everton fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat against big-spending London City Lionesses in the capital on Sunday afternoon.
First-half strikes from Delphine Cascarino and Freya Godfrey put the Londonders in to a two-goal lead heading in to the interval. Hannah Cain then halved the deficit on 71 minutes – her first since rejoining the Club. But, Eder Maestre’s side saw the victory out despite a barrage of late Everton offences.
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A host of the Blues’ internationals featured as Courtney Brosnan donned the armband fresh off the back of keeping consecutive clean sheets with the Republic of Ireland.
Australian duo Clare Wheeler and Holly McNamara also made the XI – the pair both netting for Australia over the break.
Elsewhere, Jutta Rantala was named in the matchday squad for the first time since arriving on Merseyside in the summer.
Despite a positive start by the Toffees, it was the hosts who registered the first attempt of the afternoon as captain van de Donk fired over from the edge of the area after collecting a fortunate rebound.
The home side made the breakthrough on 24 minutes as Cascarino curled past from a similar area. Van de Donk was in the thick of the action once more, laying the ball off with a delicate back-heel. Cascarino then shifted it on to her favoured foot and nestled the ball in to the far corner.
It was two ten minutes later as Godfrey picked her spot from 20-yards out. With only one thought in her mind, the forward set herself before rifling the ball in to the bottom left corner to double the hosts’ advantage.
At the other end, McNamara came close to continuing her goalscoring streak on the stroke of half-time, but saw her effort deflected by the retreating Elena Linari following a great run by the Aussie.
That concluded the action for the opening 45, with Everton keen to spark a comeback and stun the high-flying Lionesses.
Scott Phelan looked to his bench to do so as Cain, Noemie Mouchon and Aurora Galli replaced Ornella Vignola, Rosa van Gool and Wheeler in the 63rd minute.
Cain had an instant impact, heading home eight minutes later. Fellow substitute Galli spread it to McNamara, who from an unfamiliar wide position lofted in a pinpoint cross that was headed home by the advancing Wales international.
Kadidiatou Diani had the crowd on their feet thinking she had restored her side's two-goal lead with seven minutes remaining, but the linesman's flag swiftly ruled out the goal.
Only seconds later, Mouchon burst forward and went down after contact from the wrong-footed Linari. The referee waved away the Blues' appeals, though.
Noami Layzell was next to threaten, the centre-back coming agonisingly close with a powerful header after meeting Galli's corner from the right.
After a short two minutes of injury time, the final whistle concluded Everton's strong second-half.
The Blues look to return to winning ways in midweek as Newcastle United travel to Goodison Park on Wednesday night (7pm KO) in the Players’ Cup.
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