Vivianne Miedema hit a hat-trick on the opening day of the FA Women’s Super League season, as we beat Liverpool 5-0 at Meadow Park on Sunday.
Despite being forced into a number of changes, Joe Montemurro’s side came flying out the starting blocks and opened the scoring in the sixth minute.
Miedema pounced on a loose ball inside the box and made no mistake in finding the back of the net from close range. That’s her 10th goal for the club since joining in May 2017.
The early pressure continued and less than 10 minutes later we’d doubled our lead through another fine piece of play from Miedema. Our Dutch forward burst down the wing, cut back onto her left foot and played the ball into Lisa Evans, who fired high into the top corner.
Miedema then came close with a flicked effort from close range, before Pauline Peyraud-Magnin produced a stunning diving save to deny Christie Murray.
Moments later, however, we grabbed our third of the afternoon and further extended our lead. Kim Little received the ball on the edge of the box and combined well with Miedema, before dribbling past her marker and finding the bottom right corner.
But the first-half action wasn’t over yet, and just six minutes before the break Miedema doubled her goal tally. Evans raced to the byline following some intricate build-up play, and picked out Miedema who was on hand to finish from six yards out.
We failed to replicate that same attacking intensity in the opening stages of the second half, but we continued to hold the greater share of possession and offered the visitors no sight of goal.
Jordan Nobbs continued to threaten on the edge of the box, though, and came close with a snapshot from a tight angle, before firing a right-footed effort just wide of the post.
It finally looked like the score was settled, but with just one minute remaining, Miedema grabbed her hat-trick with a thumping right-footed strike from an indirect free-kick.
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