🏏 Sun, 13 Sep 2026 14:00 BST
Birmingham City W
vs
Brighton Women
Positions estimated (no formation data from the API)
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Two sides still searching for their first point of the season meet on matchday two. Brighton sit 10th after a 1-0 home defeat to Arsenal, while newly promoted Birmingham are 12th following a 3-1 loss away at Manchester City, leaving goal differences of -1 and -2. Chelsea already lead the table on four points from two games.
- Birmingham field two players facing their old club. Greek forward Vasiliki Sari (No. 27, 28) previously played WSL football with both Brighton and Everton, while South Korea international Lee Geum-min (No. 7, 32) also spent time on the south coast with Brighton. Both start against the club where they made their name in England.
- Three Japanese internationals are involved. Birmingham's Mato Miyagawa (28), a product of Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza who later played for Hammarby, lines up in defence, while Brighton start centre-back Moeka Minami (27) and right winger Takako Seike (30). Minami and Seike were team-mates at Urawa Reds Ladies, making this a familiar duel for Miyagawa.
- Brighton hold the edge in midfield quality. Anchor Lia Walti (No. 13, 33) captains Switzerland with more than 140 caps and won the Champions League with Arsenal in 2024-25 before a season at Juventus and a move to Brighton in July 2026. Ahead of her, two-time PFA Player of the Year Fran Kirby (No. 14, 33) pulls the strings from the No. 10 role.
- Birmingham counter with only two central midfielders. Lisa Naalsund (No. 8, 31) is a box-to-box operator who won back-to-back Norwegian titles with SK Brann, and her running power and late runs will be tested against Walti and captain Maisie Symonds (23), a Chelsea academy graduate who earned a senior England call-up in March 2025.
- The goalkeeping duel is worth watching. Brighton's Chiamaka Nnadozie (No. 16, 25) is Nigeria's first choice, a 180cm shot-stopper who joined from Paris FC in the summer of 2025 and collected a CAF award in 2025. Birmingham answer with Sophie Baggaley (No. 23, 29), an England youth international whose WSL experience includes a spell at Bristol City.
- Birmingham's back line mixes promotion heroes with fresh arrivals. Left-back Marie Levasseur (No. 3, 29) is a Canada international who signed from Montpellier in July 2026 after 63 appearances across three seasons in France, while Rebecca McKenna (Northern Ireland) and Neve Herron were part of the squad that won WSL2. Their task is to contain Brighton's lone striker Madison Haley (28), a Stanford graduate who joined in 2023.
- Both benches carry goals. Birmingham can turn to 19-year-old striker Chancel Efaefa, signed from Le Havre in August 2026 for a fee in excess of 100,000 pounds after scoring five in 20 French top-flight games and winning the 2023 U-17 Euros. Brighton have Aurora Tvedten (No. 20, 26), a two-time Toppserien golden boot winner with 52 goals in four seasons who arrived in January 2026.