Simona Koren joined Sunderland from MSV Duisburg
Simona Koren scored on her debut as Sunderland Ladies opened their Women's Super League One season with a win against Reading Women.
Reading went close early on when Mandy van den Berg forced a save from Anke Preuss from a low free-kick.
Koren gave the visitors the lead soon after when she finished into an open net following a defensive mix-up between Van den Berg and Mary Earps.
Lauren Bruton fired a shot over the bar but Reading could not find a response.
Sunderland goalkeeper Anke Preuss:
"We're really happy to start with a win in the new season.
"I think we were a bit lucky with our goal, obviously, but we put a big shift in and everybody worked for each other.
"In the end, I think we deserved the win because they didn't create a lot of chances, so we stood up quite well with the defence."
Reading captain Kirsty Pearce:
"We worked all week on phases of play and how we were going to break Sunderland down and I think from the moment it kicked off, it just didn't fall into place for us today.
"We had chances but, honestly, I don't think we created too much and we gifted them the goal early on, so then we were always chasing.
"It's just really frustrating that we haven't put into place what we've been working on all week."
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