Man City Women winger Nikita Parris cannot wait to take to the Academy Stadium pitch once again on Friday night.

The double-winning champions host four-time Champions League winners Frankfurt in a friendly in the Blues’ first home game of 2017.

With last season’s campaign completed in November, Parris says the team are eagerly awaiting a reunion with their incredible fanbase.

“I can’t wait,” she smiled. “It will be the first time in a long time we’ll be playing in front of our home fans.

“Everyone looks forward to playing at home. The atmosphere is amazing – the fans always urge us on – and it’s our fortress. We never want to be beaten but especially not on our own turf.

“We always want to perform to make sure we reward the fans and make them want to come back.”

City kicked off their pre-season campaign with a tough trip to Turbine Potsdam, which ended in defeat.

Parris insists however the Blues can use the experience proactively, ahead of their upcoming Champions League quarter-final with Fortuna Hjorring, and hope to bounce back on Friday.

“Pre-season has been hard,” she stated. “We started on the 4th and we had three days of fitness testing. Since then, we’ve had double day sessions in which we’ve been working hard either in the gym or out on the pitch, and now we have the matches.

“We played Potsdam the other day and we learned you have to stay switched on at all times. Your mentality has to always be strong against top quality opposition.

“Even when we went a goal down, we did threaten in the first half but we made a few mistakes that cost us goals.

“Against teams like Potsdam, you get punished for those kind of mistakes. There is no room for error.

“It’s important to be playing these friendlies against top teams, before heading into our Champions League games.

“It’s great preparation and we need to be ready because starting slowly and conceding goals would give us a mountain to climb.

“Getting experience against these teams early on helps us. We can build on our performances.

“Now, we have a friendly against strong opposition in Frankfurt. They have won the Champions League and German title many times and I imagine they will provide a similar test to Potsdam.

“Everyone is in great shape though and we are wanting to play good football, score goals and hopefully, notch up another win in front of our fans.”