Jonas Eidevall was delighted with every aspect of our performance in our 2-1 victory over Manchester City on Sunday.
Brave on the ball and resilient in defence, we delivered a complete team performance in our first home fixture at Meadow Park this season, meaning we're now level with City in the WSL table with 10 points from our opening five fixtures.
We spoke to our head coach after the final whistle - and this is what he had to say:
on the team's performance...
I think it was a strong performance both on and off the ball. I think it's a strong performance from a tactical perspective, but also from a mental and physical perspective. So that feels really good.
on our attacking play...
Yes, we were able to do that (sustain attacks) in some moments in the game, but also City are a really good football team, so we also have to endure that kind of pressure a few times in the game. And we of course, know how to work with the keys and how we get out of those situations and out of those low blocks and we scored the second goal out of that, so that was nice to see
on Lotte Wubben-Moy and Amanda Ilestedt's partnership at the back...
I think so too (they were excellent). I think they both brought out their their best qualities in their defending. They were physical, they were front footed, they worked well together, they made a lot of first contacts with the ball. I'm really proud of that.
on whether Stina Blackstenius' goal was exactly as planned...
It's one of the goals that you want from from Stina, of course, but also like the game state, because I think we were too low in our defending and we conceded too many crosses. But I didn't think that it was the right time to push up higher, because I'm afraid we would have become too spread out and they would have played us apart, so instead, let's keep lower over here to manage, but let's bring in Stina so we get a direct outlet on the transitional attacks. That was good.
on what today's victory could do for the team going forward...
I mean, I think every performance we have had here lately there are things that we can build on and we just need to be very aware of what things we are doing in order for us to develop, and still being also realistic and saying we're far from a complete team yet. I still think we have more potential but this was another step in the right direction. The players were incredible today, the fans were incredible today, the staff have been incredible with their preparation for this game. But let's stay grounded and let's prepare for the next game.
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