Glasgow City gear up to face Barcelona

GLASGOW CITY will be hoping to contain Barcelona and keep their Women’s Champions League ambitions alive for the return in Scotland when they play the Catalan giants at the Mini Estada tonight.

Last-16 opponents Barcelona are fully professional, with internationalists from France, Holland and England, as well as Spain, in their squad.

By contrast nearly all the City players have day jobs or are in education – including 16-year-old central defender Carly Girasoli, who is likely to start. The players trained yesterday evening at the Mini Estada, in the shadow of Camp Nou, just hours after arriving in Barcelona following a morning flight from Glasgow.

“We would have preferred to go over on the Monday,” head coach Scott Booth admitted, but the club were thwarted by the October holiday.

“I’ve found out in football that it’s hard to do repeat jobs, but it’s what we have to try to do against Barcelona.

“In Cyprus [against Somatio Barcelona in the last 32] we played in a certain way because of the heat and size of the pitch.

“The girls did it so well and we’ll have to try to do the same job.

“Barca have similar strengths to Somatio, but they have them at a different level.

“They try to get the ball wide left to Lieke Martens as often as they can, while Toni Duggan is a big threat and clever with the ball at her feet.

“The difference is Barca have Vicky Losada and Kheira Hamraoui in midfield. They are two really classy players. Patricia Guijarro plays at the top of the midfield and is the most attacking-minded.”