Everton Women will mark a huge moment tonight when the turnstiles open to their first ever match against Liverpool at Goodison Park.
The Toffees will host the Women’s Super League Merseyside derby, with more than 20,000 tickets sold. This will be a mammoth turnout in comparison to the usual 2,200 capacity Walton Hall Park.
The clash has been a long time coming, after the first meeting in 2020 was postponed due to adverse weather conditions, before the WSL season was eventually curtailed.
Ahead of this Women’s Football Weekend, fans gathered at the Royal Albert Dock to light up the waterfront in their club’s colours.
The results of an online poll saw the docks painted Liverpool red, but the real winner of the Merseyside bragging rights will be decided on the pitch.
Embed from Getty ImagesGoodison Park to host historic clash
Everton’s Gabby George spoke with Her Football Hub ahead of tonight’s highly anticipated derby.
“The club have put in a lot of effort to get a big crowd there, so now we need to put in a good performance and hopefully get the win,” she said.
In the reverse fixture, Everton stunned Liverpool with a 3-0 win at Anfield. Now, it will be the Blues with the home advantage as they look to continue to climb up the table.
“Form goes out the window so the previous results don’t really matter,” George continued. “Obviously it’s good for us because it was a win but we want to go out there and show that we’ve improved since that performance.”
Embed from Getty ImagesKatie Stengel of Liverpool said the Reds are just as excited. The team see their trip to Goodison as a “huge opportunity and a big challenge” as they hope to avenge their previous derby result.
“Hopefully we can put in a performance that makes everyone proud and redeem ourselves from the last game. We’ve grown a ton throughout the season so hopefully we can show them that.”
The Reds set a new attendance record back in September when 27,574 fans packed out Anfield for the first Merseyside derby of the season.
Everton will be hoping to do the same this evening. And with a big milestone on the cards, George hopes this will pave the way for more fixtures to be held at the main stadiums as women’s football continues to soar in popularity.
The Merseyside derby will kick off Women’s Football Weekend at 19.30 GMT tonight.
