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| Venue: Etihad Stadium Date: Sunday, 11 December Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app. |
Lifelong Manchester City fan Esme Morgan has been to hundreds of matches at Etihad Stadium as a supporter.
But on Sunday the defender will walk on to the pitch for the first time as a player, in front of an anticipated crowd of more than 40,000 for the Manchester derby.
“I’ve had so many good memories at the Etihad so hopefully I can have one of my own, because I’ve always dreamed of playing on that pitch and never got the chance,” said Morgan.
Barring a brief loan stint at Everton in 2019, which meant she missed out on playing against Manchester United the last time the derby was held at the Etihad, the 22-year-old has spent her entire playing career with her beloved Blues.
“I’ve been looking forward to this game since the summer when it was announced that it was going to be at the Etihad, I’m just so excited,” she told BBC Sport.
Morgan was “brought up” going to City matches and understands the deep-rooted rivalry between the red and blue halves of Manchester.
“It’s the game you always look for in the calendar,” said Morgan, who has been “educating” her team-mates on the importance of the feud.
“I was telling the Spanish girls [who played for Barcelona] how much we hate Manchester United. I said ‘you know how much you hate Real Madrid, it’s like that but more!'”
Morgan said she might find it difficult to resist joining in with the crowd should she hear City’s chant ‘if you hate Man United clap your hands’ around the Etihad.
“I’ll be humming along in the background – I might do a little clap on the side and hope no one notices,” she joked.
The lack of away end and the family-friendly atmosphere at women’s games means the rivalries that feel so strong in the men’s game can seem softer in the women’s.
But Morgan said that is not always the case for the Manchester derby.
“I think there’s other rivalries in the women’s game where it’s not as fractious but our games always seem to be intense, feisty, back and forth between the crowds and we’ve had a couple of red cards over the past couple of seasons.
“The games are always tightly fought and you put any friendships you’ve got with members of the other team aside for 90 minutes, because it just turns into a complete battle.”
City had a rocky start to the Women’s Super League season, suffering a surprise defeat at Aston Villa then falling short against defending champions Chelsea.
Those losses came after an eventful pre-season had seen them lose a host of international talent, with Keira Walsh, Lucy Bronze and Georgia Stanway making big moves overseas and Ellen White retiring.
But manager Gareth Taylor has replaced those losses with exciting midfield talents Yui Hasegawa and Deyna Castellanos, while striker Khadija Shaw, who is the league’s top scorer with eight goals in eight games, has stepped into White’s shoes with ease, flanked by Lionesses superstars Chloe Kelly and Lauren Hemp.
“After the Chelsea game it was about being more ruthless and clinical and eliminating the errors,” said Morgan.
“Since we’ve done that we’ve been on a really good winning run, and the atmosphere within the team is great – everyone is in such high spirits and we’ve got a real togetherness about the squad this year.”
A future England captain?
Despite her tender years, Morgan has already demonstrated her natural leadership qualities at City, captaining the Blues once this season with manager Taylor hailing her as a “future England captain”.
Morgan says Taylor told her that after just three weeks of working with her.
“I laughed at him and said ‘what are you on about’ and he was dead serious. He’s got so much belief in me and I appreciate that, because it allows me to go out and be confident and know that even if I make mistakes he still trusts where I can be in the future,” she said.
Morgan came off the bench to make her Lionesses debut in a friendly against the Czech Republic in October, but said the captaincy is not something she has given much thought to.
“I just want to try and establish myself as a regular in the England squad and then become a regular in the starting team and see where that takes me,” she said.
“Wherever the team need me to do a job I’ll do my best.”
‘We believe we’ll win the league’
For now, her main focus is ensuring her team’s unbeaten WSL record of three wins and two draws against their city rivals remains intact.
Not only is this game monumental when it comes to bragging rights, it is also a significant fixture in the context of the league, where a win for City would see them move level on points with United in third.
Much of the talk around the title has centred on Chelsea, Arsenal and United but, after turning their fortunes around and winning their last six WSL matches, Morgan says people should not be so quick to dismiss their title credentials.
“After our slow start people wrote us off straight away, from the inside we were looking at that saying ‘don’t write us off too soon’ because we know what we have in this dressing room.
“We’ve gone under the radar, we’ve just been picking up points and chipping away and it’s maybe crept up on people that we are only three points behind United and Arsenal and six points behind Chelsea but with a game in hand.
“The league title is very much in our sights and in our hands, and that’s a really exciting position to be in with the confidence and belief we have in the squad.
“Before our game against Brighton, Gareth [Taylor] said we will win the league this season and I looked around at everyone’s face and you could see we all believe it and we’re willing to fight for each other to make that happen.
“I truly believe that the squad we’ve got this year is capable of doing it.”
