Man City Women start Continental Cup campaign three key players short

Manchester City head to Walton Hall Park for the first Women’s Super League Cup group game against Everton.

They make the trip three key players short: Leila Ouahabi, Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp who are all on subsequent match bans after each player was shown a red card in the opening two games of the 2023/24 season.

Ouahabi was dismissed for kicking out at West Ham’s Emma Harries, while Greenwood was booked for committing an early foul and then shown a second yellow, 10 minutes before the break, for time wasting. Hemp was given two yellows for challenges on last weekend's visitors, Chelsea.

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Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor said: “Everyone will have seen most of those cautions that went against us and obviously the West Ham one as well that we did actually appeal and we were very disappointed it wasn’t downgraded because it was very soft.”

But moving forward to the next game, his beloved Continental Cup, he said: “I think this competition is important to us, we won it two seasons ago, it was my second trophy I won here. I do think it’s a great competition and a really tough competition as you have to be pretty flawless in the group stages - there’s only one team that’s guaranteed.”

Taylor must see off Everton then before facing Leicester City in November and Liverpool in late January 2024 in group B. It’s a cliche to say they’re must-win games but only the first-place team in each of the five groups progresses automatically into the knockout phases.

He continued: “We’ve found ourselves in a group that could also include potentially