Can underdogs Fulham beat the ferocious London City Lionesses in the fourth round of the Women's FA Cup?
- Millie Waters
- Jan 8, 2025
- 4 min read
In the fourth round of the Adobe Women's FA Cup, Fulham will take on the London City Lionesses in a London derby on January 12th 2025 at 12:00 pm UTC at Craven Cottage to book themselves a spot in the round of 16. With both teams having a great all-round season at the moment, who will take the win? Here are all the stats and head-to-head for both teams for this cup match.
Recent Performances:
In the last 5 games in all competitions, Fulham have achieved 5 wins. Their most recent FA cup win was a narrow win against Brentford away, beating them 1-2, while in their last Premier game in the South East and London Division, they again achieved a 1-2 away win against Barking, to put them up to 3rd in the league. Also third in their league, the London City Lionesses, in all competitions, they have achieved 3 losses and 2 wins with the most recent being 3-1 home win against Southampton in the Women's Championship. In their fast FA Cup match, they comfortably won 4-0 at home against Gwalia United. A recent string of great wins and performances against high-performing sides, close to them in their respective league tables, makes this match a hard one to predict and a match to fight for.
Unbeaten run:
Fulham W.F.C have been unbeaten in all matches in the 24/25 season so far, in all competitions, with only 1 draw; the biggest win was an easy 0-13 away against Epsom and Ewell in the second qualifying round of the women's FA Cup, in which goals were continually scored only minutes apart from each other (goal minutes were: 1, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31, 35, 38, 41, 47, 53, 68 and 78). However, London City have not been able to keep a clean unbeaten streak. At the moment, they are unbeaten in three matches in all competitions, losing three times in a row to stop their previous 4 match unbeaten streak; this was against Birmingham City, Durham and West Ham. These losses have not been by large margins, keeping a steady 60% win rate, demonstrates that despite a smaller unbeaten run than Fulham this season, they are still to be feared, showing a well balanced team, offensively and defensively; this may be due to the work of new head-coach Jocelyn Prêcheur, who led PSG to the UEFA Women's Champions League semi-final. Can Fulham keep this unbeaten run up or will the Lionesses crush their dreams?.
Players to look out for during this match:
A notable name that London City should fear is Madison Parsonson, their number 18 who this season has bagged herself 14 assists and 9 goals this season in all competitions. Despite being a defender, Parsonson has become quite a threat to opposing teams, becoming part of the offensive nature of Fulham, crossing in balls and through balls to the likes of Manzi, their key offensive player at Fulham. She was on the scoresheet at their big win against Epsom and Ewell. Ellie Olds is someone also to look out for after her hat trick in their most recent game in the league cup 3rd round against Denham United. Sophie Manzi, Fulham’s top scorer in all competitions this season with 15 goals and an assist to her name, will not return this season because of a ruptured ACL, which has become so prominent in the women's game, an MCL tear and torn meniscus in two places. She received surgery over the Christmas period to sort this but however, she will be far from returning to the game.
On the contrary, Fulham should be cautious to not give any balls away as London City's Isobel Godwin is fit for this match, having 8 goals in 10 matches in the Barclays Women's Championship. She scored in the 75th minute, from a chip over the Southampton goalkeeper from the edge of the box in their most recent match and created an assist from a cross to Asllani; the match ended in a 3-1 win. Goodwin is able to exploit chances from short passes and mistakes from opposing defenders, plus is able to run to long overhead balls with precision and a great touch to go 1v1 on goal. She is the main rival of Fulham in this match. Other players to look out for in this match are Kosovare Asllani, who has previously played for top flight clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester City. She arrived this summer and already has 2 goals and 4 assists in 8 games this season; she will be a threat to Fulham’s midfield and defensive team.
The Statistical Predictions
The bookies have predicted that there is a 70% chance that London City will win, leaving Fulham the underdogs in this match. This may be due to the league differences, with the Lionesses coming against tougher opponents in the Championship, compared to Fulham. It is also estimated by chance that London City will score first. Both teams are equal on their forms this season, away and at home, making this a tough match to make a decisive winner based on statistics.
The line-ups are predicted to be very similar to last matches as they both won their last game.
Fulham XI: Gibbs, Tagliavini, Stormer, Olds, Gandee-Morgan, Newman, Baron-Clark, Mendes, Make-Peace,Morgan,Taylor.
LCL XI: Orman, Brown, Wilde, Campbell, Mitchell, Meyong Menene, Brougham, Jakobsson, Asllani, Boye-Hlorkah, Ivanovic.
You can watch the match on BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website / app and the BBC red button in England.
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