Bristol Academy goalkeeper believes Semi-Final will be tight.
Liverpool Ladies v Bristol Academy
The FA Women’s Cup sponsored by E.ON
Semi-Final
1pm, Sunday 17 April 2011
Haig Avenue, Southport FC
Winning club will receive £2,000 from The FA prize fund
Bristol Academy goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain is predicting a tight and tense encounter against Liverpool Ladies in the Semi-Final of The FA Women’s Cup sponsored by E.ON.
The two sides meet on Sunday after this week playing their first matches of the inaugural FA WSL season; Bristol were comprehensively beaten 4-0 by Birmingham City Ladies, while Liverpool played out a thrilling 3-3 draw with Merseyside neighbours Everton, although Chamberlain believes it is too early in the season to know exactly what will happen in Southport.
“I think both teams will come into this game believing they can win it,” said the England international.
“At this stage of the season, we don't know as much about Liverpool as we'd like and vice versa. I think we might see a bit of a cagey start from both sides as we will probably be weighing each other up and trying to figure out what the strong points are.
“From our own point of view, we need to go into this game knowing that we are capable of winning. Individually we have some very talented players and collectively we are really strong. If we work together we've got every chance.”
Mark Sampson’s west country side reached this stage of the competition by beating Sheffield Wednesday 8-0 in the Fifth Round and Millwall 2-1 in the Sixth Round and Chamberlain says the UEFA Women’s Champions League places on offer to the two Finalists is a huge incentive to progress to The Final, which is being staged at The Ricoh Arena, home of Coventry City on Saturday 21 March.
“We obviously want to do well in the League, but at the start of the season our aim was to get The Cup Final.
“The FA WSL is a big thing for all the eight teams, but I think we all want to play in Europe and to get there by winning just three [FA Women’s Cup] games gave everyone a really big opportunity at the start of the season.
“We've got a really good set-up, even down to the Academy system we’ve got at the club. The team that Mark has put together could potentially do great things. Hopefully we can start it all off with a place in this season’s Final.”
