Everton Ladies Lose in Semi-Finals

Everton Ladies lost their semi-final game 1-0 against Real Betis in the Friendship Competition in Gibraltar. Garcia scored the winning goal for Real Betis in the 39th minute to take the lead.

The Toffees were without four key players who are currently in the U-20s World Cup: Chloe Kelly, Megan Finnigan, Taylor Hinds and Angharad James.

The team ended the tournament with one win and two losses, after losing 1-0 to Spanish champs, Atletico Madrid on Wednesday. In that game, Everton conceded on a corner in the 77th minute. Friday’s semi-final saw two changes from their defeat on Wednesday, Claudia Walker and Inessa Kaagman started in place of Simone Magill and Hannah Cain. Manager Andy Spence has been trying out a new formation, with three in the back instead of four.

All of the new summer signings and a few development players received valuable minutes against teams in Spain’s premier women’s division in football. This preseason was a huge improvement over last year’s because the team got experience traveling away to play teams outside of the WSL1 and there was more coverage provided by the club. Now that the team is completely full-time, these ballers deserve some star treatment, like the dolphin discovery bonding trip the squad went on:

Up the Toffees!