Birmingham City Ready to Compete Against Manchester City in WSL Opener

Birmingham ready to face their ghosts as champions Manchester City await

Four years after dropping out of the Women’s Super League and three since a brutal 6-0 defeat at the Joie Stadium sealed their fate, Birmingham City walk back into the top flight on Sunday with a very different posture.

They are not coming to survive. Amy Merricks is bringing them to fight.

The newly crowned WSL 2 champions open their 2026-27 campaign away to reigning champions Manchester City, a fixture loaded with history and imbalance on paper, but not in the Birmingham dugout.

“I think it's a great time to play Man City,” Merricks said before the game. “We know it's going to be a challenge but we are well and truly up for it. We are here to compete, not just make up the numbers.”

It is a bold line, but it matches the way her team climbed back.

Last season Birmingham averaged 2.09 goals per game and carved out a reputation as one of the most adventurous sides in the second tier. Promotion did not come from caution; it came from ambition. Merricks has no intention of parking that on the touchline just because the champions stand in front of them.

“There is a core part of our identity that is non-negotiable for us as Blues and myself as a head coach,” she said. “We are a progressive team, we will find ways to create and score. We are really clear on what our strengths are and what we need to maximise.”

The backdrop could hardly be tougher. City won all 11 of their home WSL games last season. The Joie Stadium became a fortress, a place where opponents were usually beaten long before the final whistle, often before half-time.

Birmingham know that ground differently. In May 2022, a 6-0 defeat there confirmed their relegation. That day was about damage limitation and despair. This one, Merricks insists, is about identity.

“This is the best league in the world, it is going to be tough and a challenge, but what we can't do is lose our strengths,” she said. “We have to amplify those and put ourselves in the best position possible.

“We have to focus on what we can control and that's how we can compete. We don't fear anyone. I think we showed that in the cup competitions last year.”

Those cup competitions left a mark on City too.

Five months to the day before this opener, Andree Jeglertz’s side had to grind out a 1-0 win away at Birmingham in the quarter-finals of the Women’s FA Cup. It was not a procession. It was a warning.

“We had a tough game against them last year,” the City boss admitted. “They were tactically very good and destroyed all the space on the field, defending low and their transitioning was very good. There are threats in their team we need to give attention to.”

That memory strips away any sense that Sunday will simply be champions versus cannon fodder. City know better.

“Playing against a team that is new in the league is always a challenge because I know they are coming in with a lot of energy in the first game,” Jeglertz said.

City start their first league title defence in a decade, but he is determined not to let the word “defend” seep into their mentality.

“We are still chasing, chasing to win again,” he said. “If you start protecting things, I don't think that will help us. We need to be in a mood of hunger, trying to win again, to compete in different tournaments.

“If we drop a little bit in performance or attitude, teams will go past us.”

His squad will be tested early. Vivianne Miedema, such a marquee presence in attack, will be out until at least late autumn with a knee injury. Defender Rebecca Knaak also misses the Birmingham game with a foot problem.

There is some relief. Defender Jade Rose and midfielder Grace Clinton are back in training, offering options as the season opens. But summer signing Niamh Charles remains, in Jeglertz’s words, “a big question mark” for Sunday.

So the champions begin slightly patched up, but still powerful. The promoted side arrive fearless, but fully aware of the gulf.

One team is trying to prove last season was not a one-off. The other is desperate to show that four years in the wilderness have hardened, not broken, them.

On Sunday at the Joie Stadium, Birmingham City do more than return to the WSL. They walk back into the scene of their heaviest modern defeat and promise to go toe-to-toe with the team that rule the league.

We are about to find out how far that promise can carry them.