Aston Villa Women: Daly scores double as international trio bring home respective trophies
We’re delighted to welcome author Freya Taylor and former academy player Lyndsey Bissell as our exclusive Aston Villa Women experts. Each week they’ll be collaborating to give their views on the biggest talking points at the WSL club…
As the road to the World Cup grows ever closer, Aston Villa were one of many WSL clubs to send a group of players across the world to take part in various friendlies and mini-tournaments. This international window is one of the last to take place before the World Cup in the summer and the calibre of players available right now is certainly causing a few selection headaches.
We’ll begin with the Pinatar Cup, which was held in Spain, and saw two of our Scottish internationals, captain Rachel Corsie and forward Kirsty Hanson, face up against Iceland, Wales and the Philippines in the round-robin tournament. With both players providing assists, goals (Corsie against Philippines) and creating chances throughout the three games; the Scottish national team finished only one point behind second-place Wales after having won one, drawn one and lost one. The key point of these tournaments of course is to not only highlight areas of improvement but focus on the key strengths of the teams too. Judging by this tournament, the Scottish team certainly have a bright future ahead.
Elsewhere, other familiar faces returned to their national teams for the first time in a while; as Ruesha Littlejohn came on in the second half for the Republic of Ireland against PR China and Alisha Lehmann returned to the Swiss National team, also coming on as a second-half substitute in both friendly games against Poland. On the other side of the world, Emily Gielnik was called up for the Matildas and while she didn’t get any minutes in the tournament, the feeling of being part of a winning Cup of Nations team will be a huge confidence boost for when she returns to Bodymoor Heath.
In western France, another round-robin tournament was taking place with our very own Kenza Dali playing a vital role. In the first match against Denmark, Dali came on in the second half and had two shots for Les Bleues. For the remaining two matches of the tournament, Kenza played the full 90 minutes and showed her outstanding quality on the pitch. Against Uruguay, Dali provided a brilliant goal, an assist and a further three shots on goal, contributing to the 5-1 victory for the French side. In their final game, Dali had three chances on goal, but unfortunately the match ended in a 0-0 draw. However, this didn’t matter overall as the French team were crowned champions of the Tournoi de France.
Finally, back on home soil there was success all around for both our England seniors and U23s.
Starting with our young Lionesses, both Anna Patten and Laura Blindkilde Brown started both matches against Spain and Belgium, but it was the latter that brought the best chances. With a goalless draw against Spain, the U23s knew they had to show up against a strong Belgian side. Although the visitors had their moments, it was the young lionesses who were the most clinical overall and our Anna Patten was able to score the third goal of the match from close range. An impressive 4-1 win rounded off the month nicely for Mo Marley’s team.
With two England seniors on the Villa team sheet, everyone was expecting great things from Jordan Nobbs and Rachel Daly in the Arnold Clark Cup and they certainly didn’t disappoint. In their first meeting against Korea Republic, over 21,000 people were in attendance to see the Lionesses seal a 4-0 victory with help from second-half substitute Rachel Daly in for Alessia Russo. Clearly impressing in such a quality squad, Daly earned her place in the starting lineup against a strong Italian side. An impressive header from Daly in the 33rd minute saw England take the lead; Le Azzurre managed to gain a goal back which caused our Villans to spring into action. Daly constantly found herself in space to create chances and even rattled the crossbar on numerous occasions, forcing keeper Giuliani into quick, successive saves.
In the second half, it was time for our Jordan Nobbs to make her return to the pitch in an England shirt as she replaced youngster Jess Park in midfield. Showcasing her skill and experience, Nobbs linked up well with the likes of Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood before trying to get her own name on the scoresheet too with a long-range effort set up by another impressive youngster Katie Robinson, which went wide. A close 2-1 win which over 30,000 fans were able to witness the glory of the Lionesses, a record for any sporting event held at the Coventry CBS Arena.
In the final match against Belgium, neither Daly nor Nobbs were in the starting lineup and only Daly came on for Russo yet again in the second half. It’s a pleasure to see Rachel Daly getting the opportunity to play upfront for her national team with the same fight and drive she shows at Villa every single week. But it begs the question, if she wants a consistent place in the starting lineup and play more minutes in an England shirt, is playing in her original defensive role at left-back going to be the key instead?
Meanwhile, Remi Allen and Simone Magill, who both suffered ACL injuries at the end of last season, were pictured returning to the grass during this international window stepping up their rehab and hopefully we get to see them back on the pitch as soon as possible.
In other Aston Villa Women news, here’s our experts’ take on the controversy against Brighton.