London City Lionesses beat Liverpool 1-0 in the Women’s Super League on Sunday, securing their first home win of the season thanks to a late Elena Linari penalty.
But the spot kick was mired in controversy.
It was won by Nikita Parris, who went into the box with a high boot as she looked to dink the ball over Reds goalkeeper Rafaela Borggrafe.
Both Parris and Borggrafe fell to the ground as they came into contact and the ball ran wide.
Parris was evidently in a great deal of pain, with her team-mates calling for immediate medical attention.
And referee Emily Heaslip pointed to the spot and booked Borggrafe, who was already back on her feet.
Linari then sent her penalty to Borggrafe’s right, ricocheting off the crossbar.
Television commentators suggested it was harsh as Parris’s boot had made contact with Borggrafe, and speculated that the foul should have been given the other way round.
Liverpool manager Gareth Taylor, though, said he had no complaints – suggesting that the attack should not have even got as far as Borggrafe.
“It’s a long diagonal ball, which we need to defend better,” he told the club’s official website. “It gets caught up in the wind a little bit and we make a rash decision in a moment of the game where I felt it was petering out. We were igniting them a little bit. We were playing a little bit fast from our build-up and putting ourselves in situations we didn’t need to.
“For me, I wasn’t surprised when a penalty was given.”
Jana Fernandez: London City Lionesses deserved a goal
London City Lionesses’ Jana Fernandez was named player of the match, and she said to Sky Sports afterwards: “It was a last-minute goal so very happy with the win, I think we deserved it. We did a second half worth a goal, and we showed it. We didn’t give up until the last minute. That’s our essence, that’s how we want to play. We deserved a goal and finally it was through a penalty. We had many chances so for the next one we will try to score them!
She added: “I was looking at the clock every time – the game is ending and we’re not finding the net. Finally we did. Very thankful for the job of everybody. The effort we put in today, it’s really worth everything we do, every training. Congrats to all the girls, they deserve it.”
Of the risky method of despatching the penalty, she smiled and said she was thinking: “Is it going in or not? I told everybody just go for the rebound! We trust Elena – just in case! We had to suffer some minutes. We had control of the game, so really happy about that.”
