Preview: United Women v Brighton
Manchester United Women’s WSL season enters its final four games this weekend when Brighton & Hove Albion are the visitors to Leigh Sports Village.
Tickets are on sale now for our final match before the upcoming international break and there’s details on how to secure yours, along with news of a special offer for fans who attended our victory against the Toffees, as well as all of the usual key pre-match information in our preview below…
Training highlights: Momentum is building
The Reds have been in good spirits on the training pitch prior to Sunday's WSL match, as this exclusive footage shows...
HOW TO WATCH
As mentioned above, tickets for this weekend’s outing at Leigh Sports Village are available to buy online now at £6 for adults and £3 for under 16s and over 65s. All fans who purchased tickets for last Sunday’s game at Old Trafford have been emailed details of an exclusive 'buy one get one free' offer for our next home game, so be sure to check your inbox if you are eligible for that.
If you won’t be at LSV on Sunday, you can still watch the game live on the FA Player, while we will also have matchday coverage for you here, as always, in the Manchester United App and on ManUtd.com, as well as on our women’s team’s dedicated social media accounts (@ManUtdWomen).
THE OPPOSITION
“The incentive for us is to finish sixth or even fifth, which would be a fantastic achievement because the standard of the league has definitely gone up this season,” said Brighton manager Hope Powell via the club’s website earlier this week. Her side are targeting a record-breaking WSL campaign over the coming weeks, needing just three points from the remaining four league matches to better their current best WSL points tally (27), set last season. The Seagulls also registered a club-best sixth-placed finish in the competition in 2020/21 and are on course to match that over the next month or so, currently occupying the same spot just inside the top half of this year’s table, three points behind Tottenham who sit three points above them in fifth with two games in hand.
TEAM NEWS
In the lead-up to the game, via his pre-match press conference and his preview interview with MUTV, head coach Marc Skinner will likely provide an update on the status of several Reds who missed the Old Trafford outing. Ivana Ferreira Fuso was one of those players, but as you can see from the training images below, she has been among United’s preparations this week for Sunday’s game.
Defenders Diane Caldwell, Millie Turner and Kirsty Smith also didn’t play in our last match as they continue to work their way back to full fitness, as do expected longer-term absentees Aoife Mannion and Lucy Staniforth.
Getting set for the Seagulls
GalleryUnited Women have been working hard at Carrington, ahead of Sunday's home game against Brighton.
United’s 3-1 triumph over Everton last time out means that Skinner’s Reds now boast a healthy four-game unbeaten streak going into Sunday’s match. The Reds backed up recent wins over Leicester City and Reading, plus a point at West Ham, with that memorable come-from-behind win last weekend thanks to a brace from Alessia Russo and a Katie Zelem penalty.
As for the visitors, they too come into the fixture off the back of picking up three points in their most recent outing, following a 2-0 victory away at West Ham. A defeat to title-chasing Arsenal before that is the anomaly of their last four league contests, having previously beaten Aston Villa (1-0 away) and Reading (4-1 at home) in the prior weeks.
HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD
The sides will meet for the eighth time this weekend and for the fourth occasion at Leigh Sports Village. The Reds have never lost to the Seagulls on home turf, and only once in total (won five, drawn one), but that defeat came nearly a year ago to the date of the upcoming fixture, a 1-0 loss at the People’s Pension Stadium in the WSL on 4 April 2021. United returned to the ground to pick up all three points in this season’s reverse game back in December however, winning 2-0 thanks to goals from Hayley Ladd and Vilde Boe Risa.
Highlights: Brighton 0 United Women 2
Watch the goals by Hayley Ladd and Vilde Boe Risa that earned three important WSL points...
Our match is one of six across the WSL on the first weekend of April, starting on Friday night. Here is the schedule in full…
FRIDAY 1 APRIL
Birmingham City v Everton (19:00 BST)
SATURDAY 2 APRIL
West Ham United v Manchester City (11:30 BST)
SUNDAY 3 APRIL
UNITED v Brighton & Hove Albion (12:00 BST)
Leicester City v Arsenal (12:30 BST)
Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa (14:00 BST)
Chelsea v Reading (18:45 BST)