Liverpool sink Everton and end derby drought after Olsson and Kapocs strike

At last, their wait is over. Liverpool’s players could gather in front of the Kop for a celebratory team photograph after the final whistle and rejoice in a new feeling, after beating Everton at Anfield in a Women’s Super League fixture for the first time and finally ending their long run of derby pain.

After six wins from six visits to Anfield for Everton in the WSL era and even quips from their former manager Brian Sørensen in previous campaigns about making Anfield their “training pitch” during their persistent run of victories in this showpiece fixture, Beata Olsson’s early header and Cornelia Kapocs’s late finish were enough to give them a deserved 2-0 victory.

“It’s nice to break that duck, definitely,” the Liverpool head coach, Gareth Taylor, said. “We just downplayed the game, if that makes sense, because it becomes something that’s so big that players start to worry. We want players to go out and feel natural, like they’re playing like they were when they were growing up.

“It is nice because it’s a stat that can just grow and grow. I felt we were hard done by [at Anfield] last season – if you look at their xG in that game, they scored four goals but they were absolute worldies, whereas today we’ve scored two [but] we probably could have had six.”

Taylor was not wrong; the hosts were undeniably the better side and should have scored more goals. Indeed, they would have done had it not been for the heroics of the Everton midfielder Ruby Mace.