Joe Montemurro praised his side’s maturity and defensive strength after beating Liverpool 1-0 on Sunday.
The visitors hit the post in the early exchanges before Vivianne Miedema scored the only goal of the game to give us a vital three points.
We spoke to our head coach after the match and this is what he said:
on the performance…
It was a good performance, it’s always difficult to control a 1-0 lead, maybe it’s easier to defend a 1-0 lead, but we controlled the one-nil lead and that was the most important thing. Obviously we would have liked more goals but the maturity of the performance, three games in eight days, we’re happy.
on how the team reacted to Liverpool’s strong start…
We got beyond them, in terms of their wide areas and we were quite good in those areas but again you’ve got to be clinical in central areas and we probably weren’t today.
on Miedema’s importance…
Viv’s an exciting player and an important player for the group and she, like everyone else, works for each other. We play a game where everyone is sharing a little bit of the responsibility and she’s happy to be a part of that and if se can contribute with a goal every once in a while we’re happy.
on taking control of the game…
I don’t think we were ever out of control of the game, even before we scored, because it was just a matter of time before we got the goal and it was a good goal because we were quite quick on the break as opposed to our normal sort of bold up and then sort of penetrating central areas and wide areas. It was good because I’m always happy when we control a 1-0 lead instead of trying to defend a one-nil lead.
on the defensive stability of his team…
It’s always a part of how we defend. We’re always proactive as we defend up high and on the front foot and it limits teams because they have to get the ball and cut us open so if the4y can’t get the ball it’s always good. Apart from a great header in the first half from a set play which was pretty much it apart from a couple of long range efforts and to control it like that was great.
on the strength of Liverpool…
I was very surprised, I’d been saying this for about three/four weeks that they have a very good squad, a very very good squad. I don’t really like commenting on other teams and so on but they were very surprising today. I think they’ll pick up points and I think they’ll get themselves out of the position that they’re in.
on the set up against Bristol City next week…
We will change a few things from the cup game in the week. We’ll do some other areas where we can control further up. I felt we were probably a little bit too reserved on Thursday night, we could have gone for it a little quicker, we’ll probably work on that.
on the midfield set up against Liverpool…
Liverpool crowded central areas and they had their wingers coming in quite narrow so we had to sort of go in, open them up and go out. It was just a matter of patience so we had to just retain and keep the ball and then they started to back off a little bit more as we were getting in front of them. I thought in the second half it was always a matter of time before we scored again but it didn’t come.
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