Match reportHöbinger scores on return as LFC Women beat Leicester in pre-season
Marie Höbinger marked her return from injury with a goal as Liverpool FC Women recorded a 2-0 victory over Leicester City on Saturday.
The Austrian midfielder played her first 45 minutes after 10 months out due to an anterior cruciate ligament recovery.
First-half captain Jenna Clark opened the scoring for Gareth Taylor’s side in the pre-season meeting at the AXA Melwood Training Centre.
Höbinger then grabbed an emotional second before the break via a typically classy finish, a goal greeted with great delight by teammates and coaches.
The second half did not deliver further goals but did bring more good news on the injury front as Scotland international Sam Kerr returned from a back injury to play 30 minutes at right-back.
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The Reds dominated the ball from the start of the contest and could have been ahead in the opening minute, Alice Bergstrom’s cross headed just wide by Ceri Holland.
Höbinger gave notice of her intentions after just five minutes, curling a free-kick marginally over after Aurélie Csillag was felled on the edge of the box.
Cornelia Kapocs had a dangerous shot blocked following good work by Fuka Nagano and Höbinger, while Bergstrom’s excellent run down the right deserved to lead to a goal but Csillag and Holland could not find the touch in the middle to force it home.
The pressure was building and Höbinger released Holland with the outside of her foot down the left, only for the cross to again somehow elude the red shirts in the middle.
Clark stabbed a short corner on goal but the effort was clawed off the line – before finally the Leicester resistance was broken.
Sara Agrez’s shot was denied by a great save, though the ball was recycled and Bergstrom’s latest cross was met by the head of Clark for the opener with 36 minutes on the clock.
Kapocs was then foiled by the goalkeeper, but Liverpool’s second goal arrived five minutes before the break.
Nagano sent Vivien Endemann away on the right and her delivery reached Höbinger, whose low strike found the net and prompted those warm celebrations.
The second half brought the usual raft of changes but no further goals, Endemann coming closest, released one-on-one by Nagano’s superb pass but thwarted by the ’keeper’s outstretched leg at the near post.
Academy player Vic Jones almost produced her own moment of magic, a mazy run ending with a shot that was pushed away from under the bar, while fellow youth graduate Ella Jones also produced some fine moments from the right.
The Reds will now continue their pre-season build-up with a trip to face Birmingham City on Wednesday.
Team
Liverpool: Keating (Kirby, 62), Woodham (Bernabe, 62), Agrez (Fisk, 62), Clark (Shaw, 73), Bergstrom (Kerr, 62), Nagano (Maclean, 62), Höbinger (Ramos, 46), Holland (V. Jones, 46), Kapocs (Breen, 50), Endemann (E. Jones, 62), Csillag (Olsson, 62).