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BBC News
03-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
'It feels like a final' - WSL in sight for London City Lionesses
London City Lionesses stand on the brink of a landmark moment in the club's brief Women's Championship promotion race has come down to the final day of the season, with a straight shootout for promotion to the Women's Super Lionesses sit two points clear at the table summit and will be promoted to the top tier for the first time if they avoid defeat to second-placed Birmingham City on Kosovare Asllani, who has played in four of Europe's 'big five' leagues and earned just shy of 200 caps for Sweden, considers it one of the biggest games of her career."It feels like a final," she told BBC Sport. "I've played a lot of big games, but this one is among them."These are the games you want to play, when everything is at stake. It's a game between the two best teams in the league."Should they get over the line at the weekend, the Lionesses will become the 20th different club to play in the top flight since its restructuring in while Sunday could become the biggest day in the club's short history, for manager Jocelyn Precheur and billionaire owner Michele Kang, the end goal is much greater."We have a long-term project here," Precheur said. "We know where we want to go. It's just a matter of time. We have a long road but we will do it in two, three, four seasons."Promotion is just a step. Maybe I look arrogant but Michele is very clear about the project. We want to create a good club in England." Who are London City Lionesses? In May 2019, Millwall Lionesses split from Millwall FC to become an independent and fully professional team. The following season the renamed London City Lionesses joined the Women's Championship. It hasn't been smooth sailing for the Bromley-based Lionesses, yo-yoing between second and eighth in the table during their first five seasons and going through five permanent managers - and three interims - prior to Precheur's arrival from Paris St-Germain in June in 2022-23 they did come within touching distance of promotion, finishing in third position but only three points behind champions Bristol City. Although they finished second the previous year, they were 11 points behind other competitions, the Lionesses have reached the fifth round of the Women's FA Cup this season and last, while they qualified for the Women's League Cup quarter-finals in 2023-24. 'When she says something, she does it' In December 2023, London City Lionesses were bought by Kang, marking the start of a new era for the South Korea-born American billionaire was inspired to invest in women's sport after meeting the World Cup-winning US women's national team in 2019 and has since built up a portfolio of women's football teams, purchasing NWSL team Washington Spirit and French serial trophy winners Lyon, alongside the objective couldn't be clearer: to make every team she owns champion of their respective influence has been eye-catching, recruiting manager Precheur, who led PSG to the last four of the Women's Champions League (2023-24), and bringing in more than a dozen new players throughout this headline additions included veteran Sweden internationals Sofia Jakobsson and Asllani, who won the WSL with Manchester City, and five-time Women's Champions League winner Saki the field, Kang has relocated the club to Bromley and purchased the 28-acre Cobdown Park in Aylesford, Kent, with the ambition of constructing a centre of excellence for women's and girls' is, in the words of forward Izzy Goodwin, a "very powerful woman"."It's great to have her [at our games] and when she's there, she's our lucky charm. The things she's done at this club and the other clubs is great," Goodwin for Precheur, who was inspired to join the Lionesses after seeing the transformation at Washington Spirit, Kang's biggest asset isn't her investment but her commitment to her vision."What she's doing is amazing and I hope it will inspire other clubs or other rich people to invest in women's football," Precheur told BBC Sport."We've heard many times in the past, people who arrive [and say] we want to be promoted and play in the Champions League. Look at the men's side, so many examples and so many failures."You cannot realise how different it is if you haven't spoken with Michele. She knows what she wants and when she says something, she does it."When we have this kind of support, everything becomes possible. It has to come from the top if you want to breed a winning culture."I can share many things with the players, but it has to be followed and supported and created by the club and the leaders, and now it's come directly from Michele." 'It was never going to be a walk in the park' With Kang's investment and the flurry of new arrivals, London City Lionesses were runaway pre-season favourites to secure promotion to the WSL. Many expected them to win the Championship at a canter. Instead, the promotion race has turned into a over Durham last week would have seen them crowned champions with a match to spare, but they were held to a 1-1 draw – the second time this season Adam Furness' side have proved a thorn in the Lionesses' side after beating them 3-2 in November. Newcastle (1-1), Sunderland (1-0), and Charlton (1-1) have also taken points off the league leaders, as have Birmingham, who won last November's reverse fixture Lionesses have had to fight hard for their league-leading 13 wins, with seven of those victories coming via a one-goal margin. And at the halfway point in the season, just five points separated then-table toppers Birmingham from eighth-placed Charlton Athletic. For these reasons, Precheur believes it was disrespectful to the quality of the league to tout London City Lionesses as champions-in-waiting before a ball had been kicked."We identified four or five very good teams. We identified Birmingham as a strong opponent and they confirmed the first feeling I had about them. This league is very tough, very competitive," he told BBC Sport."We think with huge financial support, two or three big names, everything becomes easy. But football is not like this. We need to create a culture and so many things to have everything we need to perform consistently during the season."Not intentionally, but it's a lack of respect for the other teams. We don't talk about small clubs. Birmingham, Charlton, Bristol, they're big clubs in England. It was a little lack of respect to think that it will be easy."Asllani, who has played top-flight football in England, France, Spain, and Italy, says the Championship is "not a normal league" as well as highlighting the rebuilding process required with the arrival of a new coach and more than a dozen new players. "It's not a normal second division. You see these top clubs playing in better stadiums than I've played in in Spain or Italy. [And] it's a physical league," Asllani said."It's a lot of top clubs, a lot of good players that have played together for a long time. Our team's been created with a lot of new players, a new coach. It's not easy to get [promotion] done in one season."Prolific attacker Goodwin agrees, with the 22-year-old teeing up Sunday's game by saying: "The Championship is such a good league. Each year, it's getting better and better. It was never going to be a walk in the park."[This game] is like a play-off final to go up to the Premier League."
BBC News
23-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Chelsea captain Bright makes 200th WSL appearance
Chelsea captain Millie Bright has become the second player to make 200 appearances in the Women's Super 31-year-old defender reached the milestone during Chelsea's WSL home game against Crystal Palace on Wednesday. Aston Villa midfielder Jordan Nobbs, who has played in every edition of the WSL, is the current record holder with 207 appearances. England international Bright made her first appearance in the WSL for Doncaster Belles in 2011 and went on to feature 32 times over three seasons in the top flight with the Yorkshire club. Following a season in the second tier, she moved to Chelsea before the 2015 campaign and has since amassed a further 168 appearances in 11 seasons - a record for the Blues. While at Chelsea, she has won seven WSL titles and has been club captain since September 2023. Head here to get involved
BBC News
30-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Crystal Palace 0-4 Arsenal: Gunners continue free-scoring form
Since losing to Chelsea towards the end of January, Arsenal have been in unrelenting form in the Women's Super Gunners have won each of their last six WSL games, the first time they have done so since December 2023 under former boss Jonas Eidevall when they recorded seven consecutive Slegers' side have scored 24 goals in those six games with Alessia Russo on 11 goals for the season, one behind Manchester City's Khadija Shaw in the race for the Golden Mead's double against Crystal Palace highlighted her importance as she scored her 50th and 51st WSL goals for the Kelly provided another assist and her cross in the 77th minute was diverted into her own net by Palace captain Allyson Swaby with the England international excelling in her third consecutive couldn't be in better form ahead of the biggest match of their season, when they face Lyon in the first leg of their Champions League semi-finals at the Emirates on 19 April.
BBC News
21-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Everton 'don't want to look down' in WSL table
Everton want to make sure they "don't have to look down" in the table by picking up a victory over bottom club Crystal Palace on Brian Sorensen says that is "really important" to relieve any lingering concerns about relegation in the Women's Super Toffees currently sit eighth in the table - seven points clear of Palace."It is really important, we know that. It is 90 minutes of football and anything can happen," said Sorensen."We just need to make sure that we are sharp, ready and at our best. I am very confident that we haven't got our last three points of the season."We want to make sure that we don't have to look down, and win that game. Palace have the tools to [stay up] but so do the other teams around them. We will see."Here are more key lines from Sorensen's media conference ahead of Saturday's match (14:00 GMT):Clare Wheeler has recovered from illness, while Melissa Lawley picked up a minor injury in training but both are expected to be available for on-loan Chelsea forward Louna Ribadeira is set to miss the rest of the season with a foot says Everton are preparing for a "tough" game but are "ready" to face Palace.
BBC News
14-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Arsenal boss Slegers 'hopes' Kelly is available for derby
Arsenal head coach Renee Slegers says she "hopes" Chloe Kelly is available for Sunday's north London derby against Tottenham in the Women's Super England forward has yet to play for the Gunners since joining on loan from Manchester City on transfer deadline day after falling out of favour at Joie 27-year-old was ineligible to play in back-to-back matches against her parent club in the WSL and Women's League Cup, while she was cup-tied for Sunday's FA Cup win over London City who pushed for a move in January, has not played in the WSL since 15 December, when City were beaten 2-1 by Everton."We hope she's available for Sunday and we know what she can do for us," said Slegers."I look forward to her first minutes for Arsenal and we will see when that is."England boss Sarina Wiegman left Kelly out of the Lionesses' squad for the Women's Nations League matches against Portugal and Spain later this made just one WSL start for City this season, Kelly was concerned about her place in the squad for Euro 2025 in her move to Arsenal, Kelly said on social media that she wanted "to be in a position to give it my best shot to represent my country" at the if she was confident that Kelly could work her way back into the England squad, Slegers said: "That's something I can't control. We want the best for Chloe. I have spoken to Chloe and she accepts the situations as they are, she is just really happy she is with us at the moment."She wants to take every opportunity wherever it is - in a match or training environment to push herself and find the next level and get her rhythm and play minutes again."If Kelly does feature against Tottenham at Emirates Stadium, it will be her second debut for the club after having come through Arsenal's academy."She comes from the club so we're happy she is back and what she brings is her qualities as an attacking player, but also her willingness to defend and be aggressive and work hard," Slegers are third in the WSL, 10 points behind leaders Chelsea, while Tottenham are sixth.
