Glasgow ladies prepare for crunch European clash

Glasgow City Ladies won over hundreds of new fans last week as Eddie Wolecki Black's side drew 1-1 with Icelandic outfit Valur in the first ever women's Champions League game to take place in Scotland.

A bumper crowd of 778 turned out to support Scotland’s most successful women’s football team in the first leg of their last 32 tie at Petershill Park in Springburn.

City grabbed the lead just 16 minutes in through Lisa Evans, though the strike starlet squandered a number of great chances to extend City’s lead in the first half.

The Reykjavik-based opponents, who this month relinquished the Icelandic title after five years as champions, made City rue those missed chances as they pulled a goal back just short of the hour mark through Laufey Ólafsdóttir.

A momentary lapse in concentration from home side stopper Claire Johnstone resulted in an indirect free-kick inside the 18-yard box and Ólafsdóttir was on hand six yards out to fire past Johnstone and hand the Icelanders a valuable away goal ahead of the second leg this week.

With such a special occasion not only for Glasgow City Ladies but also many of the organisations which support women’s football in Scotland, there were many VIPs among the crowd, including Shona Robinson, the Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport, Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan, and Scottish FA vice-president Campbell Ogilvie, while Scotland head coach Anna Signeul was also in attendance.

City started the game the brighter of the two sides and ought to have been ahead after two minutes as Evans raced through on to a great through-ball from Christie Murray. But her shot did little to challenge American goalkeeper Meagan McCray.

However, Glasgow took the lead 14 minutes later as Evans picked up a long ball from Claire Gemmell. Her first touch was poor only for the strike ace to enjoy a successful break of the ball before firing past McCray to rapturous celebration from everyone inside the ground.

The home side continued to press and Evans came close again four minutes later, but again shot straight at the Valur keeper before McCray pulled off an acrobatic one-handed save to deny Leanne Ross’ curling effort midway through the opening period. Emma Fernon saw a shot go just wide before Evans was again found guilty of wasting a clear-cut chance to extend the home side’s advantage as her shot rolled across the face of goal.

A minute before the half-hour mark, Evans had the ball in the back of the net again with a sublime lob only to see the goal ruled out as Portuguese referee Sandra Braz Bastos penalised Scotland U19 captain Eilish McSorley for a foul in the build-up.

The visitor’s best effort of the first half came two minutes before the interval as Hólmfrídur Magnúsdóttir delivered a curling 30-yard free-kick that had Johnstone beaten but cannoned back off the crossbar.

City proved less dominant after the break as the game opened up, Valur’s equaliser arriving in fortuitous circumstances with Johnstone penalised for handling a back-pass. The ball was laid back to centre-back Mist Edvardsdóttir who fired towards goal and Ólafsdóttir reacted quickest to direct the ball past the helpless home side keeper.

Both sides continued to press for an invaluable winner but best efforts were half chances, with Murray seeing her 20-yard free-kick fly over the bar as the Scottish champions were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw.

City travel to the Icelandic capital this week without influential captain Rachel Corsie who is unavailable for the second leg, with German champions and double Women’s Champions League winners, Turbine Potsdam, almost certainly their last 16 opponents should they advance after they defeated Valur’s compatriots Þór/KA 6-0 in Akureyri.

In spite of the manner in which they conceded, City head coach Eddie Wolecki Black said: “I think that the positive thing is that we created so many chances. “I think that was the real positive, and I think that the people watching tonight, they maybe see the quality we’ve got and creating opportunities for ourselves, so that’s very pleasing. If we went away with 1-0 it’d been even more pleasing than going 1-1, but the tie is very much alive.”

Former Montrose manager Black added: “I think we can do Scotland proud. I think we have shown tonight one thing for everyone, is that we can compete at this level.”

Looking ahead to this week's clash at the Vodafonevöllurinn in Reykjavik, City skipper Corsie said: “Tonight, we created seven or eight good chances and we only got one [goal], so maybe in Iceland we might only create three chances, but we might score all three, and hopefully that’s the case.”