Euro struggles show need to raise standards
Alan Campbell on women’s football
THE big games are coming thick and fast for Glasgow City and Hibernian, and especially for their players who are also in the Scotland squad. Next up, following the Women’s Champions League ties, is Thursday’s international friendly against the Netherlands.
Disappointing as it is that neither City nor Hibs will be in tomorrow’s Champions League last-16 draw, it shouldn’t be any great surprise. Hibs were never going to beat German champions Bayern Munich, and City, too, were paired against a fully professional side in Eskilstuna United. Losing an away goal so quickly at the Excelsior Stadium on Thursday was a blow from which Leanne Ross, pictured, and her City teammates did not recover. Swedish strikers Mimmi Larsson and Olivia Schough, who scored the three Eskilstuna goals over the two legs, took their chances clinically – and that was the only significant difference between the sides.
Both City and Hibs will rest personnel in today’s SSE Scottish Women’s Cup semi-final ties against Glasgow Girls and Hearts. A week today they meet each other in a much more intense game – when anything other than a Hibs win will see their rivals crowned champions for an incredible 10th successive season.
Therein lies another reason why Scottish sides are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with fully professional opposition in the Champions League. Clubs in the top European leagues face difficult games almost every week but a fully-focused Glasgow City and Hibs can be expected to almost routinely beat every other team in SWPL1.
Until Scotland’s men’s clubs instigate something more ambitious than the box-ticking exercise which is their current approach to women’s football, it’s hard to see how the standard of domestic competition is going to improve significantly any time soon. THE road to Holland starts for Scotland in Livingston on Thursday, and the attractive friendly against next summer’s Euro hosts is as good a way to kick off the journey as any.
Anna Signeul will be without the injured Seattle Reign pair of Kim Little and Rachel Corsie, just as she was in Reykjavik last month when her side beat Iceland 2-1 in the final group game.
The national coach indicated that she wants both to be fully available next June and July for the planned intensive build-up to the Euros. That would make it difficult for Little and Corsie to continue playing in America next season, as their domestic league is not bound by Fifa’s international windows.