Women's Champions League: Glasgow City & Celtic enter qualifying tournament

Glasgow City and Celtic will both begin their campaigns on Wednesday as they carry Scottish hopes into the Women's Champions League.

The Scottish Women's Premier League champions and runners-up are two of 41 teams in round one of qualifying, seeking to claim one of the 11 spots up for grabs in round two.

More teams enter at that stage, with the 12 winners progressing to the group stage to join heavyweights Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Lyon.

Should either of the Scottish duo win on Wednesday, they will advance to the final of their mini-qualification tournaments on Saturday. Lose and they will be obliged to play out a dead rubber, with their group stage hopes already extinguished.

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Irish challenge for City

Shelbourne stand between Glasgow City and the round one final, with Lithuanian hosts Gintra and Welsh side Cardiff City contesting the other semi-final.

Having won the 2022 edition of the Women's National League, Noel King's Shelbourne joined Glasgow in the champions route of the qualifying tournament.

They are currently second in their domestic league, six points off the top after 11 wins and one draw from 15 games.

Glasgow City are unbeaten so far this season in the SWPL

Shelbourne won their semi-final at this stage last season but lost to Iceland's Valur in the final.

City lost to Roma in last year's semis and ultimately lost their third/fourth place play-off against Servette.

Gintra are the host team for the games involving City, with Shelbourne first up on Wednesday at 10:00 BST.

Danish assignment for Celtic

Celtic return to the competition after missing out last time and meet Denmark's Brondby in the round one semi-final (13:00), in the league path of the qualifiers.

Norway's Valerenga are the host team and face Belarussians Minsk in the other semi-final.

Celtic were fourth place in the 2021-22 qualifying tournament and take on a Danish side who were runners-up domestically last term.

They have won their opening two league games this year along with division leaders KoldingQ.

Like Celtic, Brondby were in the qualifying tournament two seasons ago, and lost their semi-final, but did take third place in their section.

Unbeaten start for Scottish sides

Celtic are top of the SWPL after winning all five of their opening fixtures.

City have won four and were held to a draw by Rangers, with whom they sit on 13 points.

City reached the round of 32 in season 2020-21 and went as far as the quarter-finals the season before that.

Celtic are taking part in the competition for only the second time and aim to emulate their men's team by featuring in the group stage.