🏏 Sun, 18 Oct 2026 14:00 BST
Aston Villa Women
vs
Liverpool Women
3-4-2-1 vs 4-1-4-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Aston Villa are 13th on three points after five matches (0-3-2) with a -7 goal difference and still no win to their name. Liverpool arrive sixth on seven points (2-1-2, +3). Leaders Chelsea are already on 16 points from six games, and Villa hold only a three-point cushion over bottom club Charlton Athletic, who are yet to register a point. A home afternoon with real weight attached.
- Villa's form line reads D-L-D-L-D. They opened with a creditable 1-1 draw away at Chelsea, but were beaten 4-1 at home by Manchester City and 4-0 away at Tottenham. Their other two games finished 1-1 — at Brighton and at home to Crystal Palace. Four goals scored and eleven conceded in five outings tells the story of a side that competes but cannot close games out.
- Liverpool's sequence is W-D-L-W-L. They won 4-0 at Charlton on the opening weekend and beat Everton 2-0 at home in the Merseyside derby, but lost 4-2 at Manchester City and 1-0 at Manchester United. Both defeats came on the road against fellow top-half sides, so a result away from Anfield is exactly what this trip is about.
- Two Japan internationals face each other. Villa's goalkeeper is 22-year-old Akane Okuma, a product of the JEF United Chiba Ladies academy who won back-to-back WE League player awards at INAC Kobe Leonessa, made her Nadeshiko debut in 2025 and moved to Villa in July 2026. Lining up in Liverpool's midfield is her national-team colleague Fuka Nagano.
- Nagano, 27 and just 160cm, operates as the lone holding midfielder in Liverpool's 4-1-4-1, controlling the game with precise passing and a high tactical read. Her route here ran through Urawa Reds Ladies, Incheon Hyundai Steel, Chifure AS Elfen Saitama, Mynavi Sendai and North Carolina Courage in the NWSL. With Villa fielding two strikers, the space either side of her will be fiercely contested.
- Three of Villa's starters have Arsenal on their CV. Noelle Maritz, the 30-year-old Switzerland right-back, played for both Arsenal and Wolfsburg and has a Champions League final behind her. Milly Taylor (26) debuted for Chelsea at 16, went on to Arsenal and Angel City in the NWSL, and switched her international allegiance to Scotland in 2025. Centre-back Anna Patten (27, 178cm), a Republic of Ireland international, also came through Arsenal's academy.
- Villa's summer recruitment leaned heavily on Juventus. Striker Amalie Vangsgaard, the Denmark international who arrived via Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus, now wears No. 20 up front, while centre-back Mathilde Harviken (24) made the same move. The Norway international played over 80 matches for Rosenborg, won the 2023 Norwegian Cup and has appeared at both the 2023 World Cup and Euro 2025.
- Liverpool's attack has a strong Swedish accent. Beata Olsson (25), a full Sweden international striker, and Cornelia Kapocs (26), who joined in 2024, both arrived from Kristianstads DFF and both spent time in American college soccer at Florida State. Kapocs can operate centrally or from a flank, and there is a neat subplot: Villa's centre-back Anna Patten also played at Florida State.
- Both goalkeepers are young. Liverpool's Ciara Keating is 21, a Manchester City academy graduate who was nominated for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2024. Villa trust 22-year-old Okuma, with Emily Ramsey (25) behind her on the bench — the England goalkeeper counts Liverpool among her former clubs alongside Manchester United and Everton, giving the home substitutes an old-club storyline.
- The benches offer contrasting options. Villa can introduce 19-year-old Scotland forward Mia MacAulay, who debuted for Rangers at 16 and made over 100 appearances before moving south, plus Oriane Jean-François (25), a France-born midfielder with PSG and Chelsea behind her and a U-19 European title. Liverpool counter with Austria playmaker Marie-Therese Höbinger (25), developed at Sturm Graz and St. Pölten, and German forward Vivien Endemann (25), formerly of Wolfsburg.