Scotland's history makers prepare for Champions League battle
By Andrew Southwick:
Glasgow City head coach Eddie Wolecki Black says Scottish football is on the verge of history as his side prepare for Champions League action tonight.
September has been a huge month for the game north of the border with Scotland battling their way into the Euro 2013 play-offs and Glasgow City welcoming Fortuna Hjorring in the last 32 of Europe's premier competition.
With women's football in the spotlight after the Olympics, and England have already qualified for Sweden next summer, Black says the game in Scotland could receive a huge boost if they can gain success at both club and international level in the next few weeks.
"It's important for football in this country that both us and the
international team do well," said Black. "If they can qualify for Sweden 2013 then
I think that will have a big effect on women's football in this
country. And it's the same as what we'd have if we managed to get
through this phase, and the next phase of the Champions League then it'd
be the same again.
"On the back of the Olympics it's a great opportunity
for this group of girls to make history."
Glasgow City defeated Valur at this stage last season
City are at home in the first leg, but Black quashed any notion of his team concentrating solely on keeping a clean sheet, and said fans coming along to Petershill Park should expect plenty of goals.
He said: "I think it's going to be a really open game, as they're really attack minded. At the weekend they won 8-3, it seems symbolic of how they play, they really go out all attack.
"Someone asked me earlier on if we'll see clean sheets, but we strive to attack and so do they so I think we'll see goals in the game."
Despite Glasgow City's incredible domestic success, and the remarkable acheivement of an amatuer side making the knock-out stages again of the Champions League, the club continues to live with the 17-0 thrashing in last year's competition by German side FC Pottsdam.
The game, screened live on BBC Alba, was the first taste many viewers had of the side, and indeed women's football. Black and his players are keen for a positive result in order to erase that memory and show the club is on the up.
He said: "If you look at any team that's won the Champions League, they've
all gone through spells early in their development. Whether it was Lyon
or whoever, look back at their early scores when they first started
getting through to the last 32 and last 16, they took a few heavy
beatings on the way aswell. So as a club it's a natural progression to
go through these type of results.
"There's no doubt
the Pottsdam game was too big for us at the time. It was live on
television, there was a big crowd over there, and the media focus was
incredible. Some of our players were in their 50th game of the season,
Pottsdam were in their 7th, and that makes a big difference at that
stage of the season.
"This year, rather than being over excited about it,
there's a real focus and determination about the team. They feel they belong here, and I believe they belong here."
Captain Rachel Corsie has also been part of the Scotland side that finished second in their qualifying group behind France. Her performances at the back were pivotal, especially on the road where victories over Wales and Ireland secured Scotland's play-off spot.
With many of the Glasgow City players involved in the Scotland set-up, she's hopeful that the international performances can transfer over to the Champions League.
She said: "For the ones involved, we're obviously in the play-offs and that's a big
confidence boost. You can bounce off that, and obviously it's big
games and it helps us in the run-up.
"At the same time club football is
very different from international football in that regard, it's not so
similar, we play a different style of football here. You can take
positives but I don't think it is much of an impact."
She added: "It's disappointing how we exited the tournament last year, and I think
we had a lot to learn from that, but at that same time there's a lot of
new players that have come in as well so it's their first time. It's
important the ones who did get that experience last year can utilise
that to our strengths and help the others."
Glasgow City face Fortuna Hjorring tonight in the first leg at Petershill Park. Kick-off is 7pm, with admission £5 for adults and just £2 for kids.
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