Lize Kop has claimed the HSBC Player of the Match award after her penalty shootout heroics against Aston Villa in the Women’s League Cup on Wednesday night.
A stunning performance in between the sticks, our number one came top of our Player of the Match poll hosted exclusively on our Official App to claim her first award of the season as helped us to gain two points in our opening game of the group phase.
Having already kept two clean sheets in our opening three Barclays Women’s Super League campaign, the Netherlands international was in stellar form throughout the 90 minutes under the lights at Brisbane Road, producing a number of crucial shots in key moments to keep the game at 0-0.
Finishing goalless in normal time – with a point in the bag – we then headed to a penalty shootout for an extra point in the group and, with the score at 4-4, Miri Taylor needed to convert her spot-kick to win the shootout but Kop stood strong to deny the midfield and send it to sudden death.
Kop showed composure to calmly slot home our seventh spot-kick of the evening before she produced the heroics to keep out Georgia Mullett’s penalty and win us the shootout 7-6 in the end.