Booth welcomes romance of Barcelona as City are drawn to face Spanish giants
Scott Booth has welcomed Glasgow City’s Women’s Champions League last-16 tie against Barcelona, saying it is every player’s dream to line up against the legendary Spanish club.
The first leg will be in the Catalonian capital on 17 or 18 October, with the return game in Glasgow on 1 November.
City head coach Booth, who was on the bench at the Camp Nou when his then side, Dortmund, played Barcelona in the two-legged 1997 Uefa Super Cup final, said: “Everybody wants to play against Barca during their career.
“We’re happy with the draw – all the eight seeded teams are top, top sides, but there’s a little bit of romance about playing Barcelona.”
The Spanish club have invested a lot of money in their women’s team in recent years, having fully embraced the side into their set-up. They were the fourth-highest ranked team in yesterday’s last 16 draw in Nyon, and reached the semi-finals of a competition dominated by French and German sides in 2016-17.
“I’ve watched them online already, and it goes without saying they’ve got some really good players,” Booth said. “I also saw a lot of them live at the Euros last summer when I was doing television work.”
Barcelona’s stars include Dutch Euro winner Lieke Martens, who was shortlisted for last season’s Uefa Women’s Player of the Year award, Spain midfielder Vicky Losada, and England forward Toni
Duggan, who joined from Manchester City last year.
The Spanish side finished second to Atletico Madrid in last season’s Primera Division and have won all three games in the current campaign.
The first leg in Catalonia will be played in the middle of a crucial domestic week for Booth’sside.theyplayhibernian in a semi-final of the SSE Scottish Women’s Cup on 14 October and then travel to Spain before returning to meet Hibs again in the penultimate SBS SWPL1 game on 21 October.
Both sides lead the table with 53 points apiece and the league game will almost certainly be the title decider.
Regardless of how City fare against Barcelona, there will be at least one Scottish player in the quarter finals. English champions Chelsea, with Erin Cuthbert in their ranks, were drawn against Fiorentina, whose squad includes former Spartans striker Lana Clelland.
Yet another Scotland player, Fiona Brown, plays for Swedish champions Rosengard. As the seeded side they will be favourites to beat Slavia Prague.