A fiery Merseyside derby with Liverpool seeking retribution against Everton is what Rhiannon Roberts is anticipating.
In their first Women’s Super League matchup of the season, the Toffees defeated their neighbourhood rivals 3-0 at Anfield thanks to goals from Megan Finnigan, Jess Park, and Hanna Bennison.
On Friday, Liverpool will have a chance to right the wrongs, and dependable defender Roberts, who is affectionately known by her teammates as Razza, is itching to triumph over her noisy neighbours.
I’ve played in two Anfield derbies now, Roberts said in an exclusive interview with LiveScore. We could still be playing right now and probably wouldn’t have scored in the first one, which was heartbreaking.
“Then the latest one, back in September, it just felt a little flat for some reason. There wasn’t that usual derby feel around it.
“I can see it being feisty on Friday, so I’m looking forward to it. Last time, I remember saying at half-time in the dressing room, ‘How has nobody had a yellow card yet?’.
“It’s always pretty heated when we meet, as you’d expect. But we’ve just got to be focused and disciplined. It’s easier said than done but we have to try and play the game and not the occasion.”
The 32-year-old, who is also a regular at international level with Wales, admits that the buzz of playing at stadiums like Anfield and Goodison Park still fills her with huge excitement.
She added: “It’s unbelievable — incredible really. You go to these grounds as a kid watching your team, so to play at grounds like that in front of so many supporters is amazing.
“It just makes you want to make a stand and help turn Merseyside red!”
Finding their feet
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Having been relegated to the Championship on a points-per-game ruling in the prematurely curtailed 2019-20 season, this campaign is Liverpool’s first back in the WSL.
Matt Beard’s side stunned reigning champions Chelsea 2-1 on the opening day but have struggled for consistency — picking up 11 points from 13 outings since.
Still, Roberts feels the campaign has been a positive one to date for her side.
She explained: “We had a great start to the season in beating Chelsea. We really put our mark on the league, which was nice.
“We struggled a bit after that just finding our feet again in the top division. But I think we’ve got up to speed with being back in the Super League now.
“Liverpool are a massive club, one of the biggest in the world, and they are backing us fully. They’ll keep on supporting us and year on year we’ll continue to get stronger.
“Hopefully we can be competing in the top two or three sooner rather than later.
“We kind of got used to that winning feeling last year! But the best thing is we had a great group of players then and we’ve managed to keep most of it together.
“It’s a great group of girls, such a good environment and it’s a great place to be. We know how important that is.”
Any relegation fears for Liverpool were greatly eased with last weekend’s vital 2-1 victory over Tottenham.
Emma Koivisto and Missy Bo Kearns were on the scoresheet for the Reds and Roberts believes the result will alleviate the pressure in the final weeks of the season.
Roberts said: “That was a huge three points for us against Spurs. We didn’t put too much pressure on ourselves, we just tried to treat it like another game.
“Come full-time though, we knew how important that was and it just divides us a little bit from the bottom few teams, meaning we can start to look up the table.
“We’ve had a couple of injuries this season. Losing Leanne Kiernan at the start of the campaign was a blow for us because she was on really good form last year.
“But we’ve had a successful season. We set our own targets as a team with our psychologists and we are meeting those at the minute.
“Now it’s just about picking up as many points as possible and seeing how far up the league we can finish.”