Scottish Women's Football

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Celtic will have "too much" for Vorskla Poltava in the second-leg of their second round Champions League qualifying match, says former Scotland captain Gemma Fay, as the SWPL champions eye becoming the first Scottish team to qualify for the group stage.

Elena Sadiku's side took a significant step towards achieving the feat in Sunday's first leg against the Ukrainian champions, where they were 1-0 winners.

Celtic host again on Thursday evening in Airdrie, with kick-off 19:15 BST live on BBC Alba, in the knowledge a clean sheet will send them among Europe's elite.

The Glasgow side defeated Finnish outfit KuPS and Lithuanian side Gintra in the first round of qualifying, after entering the champions path following last season's dramatic title win.

Sadiku's team clinched their first SWPL title with a 90th-minute winner against Hibernian, a success driven by the heartache they endured the previous term.

Under Fran Alonso, they were seconds away from celebrating before news across the city of Glasgow City's triumph reached them.

Then, this time last season, they were knocked out of the Champions League in a penalty shootout against Valerenga.

But it is such heartache which former Scotland captain Gemma Fay believes will stand them in good stead for Thursday's crucial second leg.

"They've lost with the last kick of the game, they've lost on a penalty shootout, they've been in these moments and had that experience," Fay said on the Behind the Goals podcast.

"I think they've got enough players who understand what pressure is and how to achieve under it.

"I think this is a winnable tie, but I think there's some caution needed out there," she added.

Winnable it is, particularly given Celtic's strength in depth.

For instance, Saoirse Noonan, who netted a hat-trick against KuPS and again last week against Montrose, remained on the bench in the first leg.

"I think they have opportunities to bring players on that can change a game to either shore it up or to chase it if they need to, so I just think they've probably got a bit too much."

Gemma Fay discusses the pitfalls surrounding Celtic's potential Women's Champions League revenue should they qualify for the group stages.

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Gemma Fay is urging former club Celtic to be wary in the second leg of their Champions League qualifier against Vorskla Poltava.

Elena Sadiku's side were 1-0 winners in the first leg on Sunday and need to avoid defeat on Thursday to land a spot in the group stage.

Former Scotland and Celtic goalkeeper Fay believes her ex-team's European experience will be key in getting them over the line.

Speaking on the BBC's Behind the Goals podcast, Fay said: "I think they've got enough players on the pitch who have had those experiences of what pressure is and how to play under pressure.

"I think the depth of their squad is far better. I think they've got a lot more opportunity to bring players on who can change the game to either shore it up or to chase.

"But they have to be careful, they can't be slack in the build-up because they can be punished. This is a winnable tie, but there is some caution."

Victoria Esson (Rangers): Made a crucial save at 0-0 and despite not having an awful lot to do for much of the afternoon she was alert to any potential threats and demonstrated good handling when coming out for high balls.

Samantha Van Diemen (Glasgow City): Composed and comfortable at the back. As well as dealing with most that comes her way, she also strives to get the ball forward.

Rosie Slater (Partick Thistle): Developing all the time at this level. She’s brave and doesn’t mind attacking the ball and we saw both of those qualities this weekend as she put Thistle 2-0 up against Dundee United.

Jenna Penman (Motherwell): Played her part in keeping a clean sheet for her side, while also helping Motherwell to their first win in six with an assist.

Brogan Hay (Rangers): Really influential for Rangers, bursting forward at every opportunity. She opened the scoring in what was a big game. She was a thorn in Hearts side all afternoon.

Amy Bulloch (Partick Thistle): Thistle were in complete control of their game against Dundee United and Bulloch was thick in amongst it, driving forward and looking to set up attacks.

Rio Hardy (Rangers): Persisted after missing an early chance so deserved her goal. Her link-up play with Hay was on point and she, like Hay, was a danger all afternoon.

Olivia Chomczuk (Spartans): Although she was subbed at half time due to an injury, the 17-year-old impressed when she was on the park. She was everywhere and was alert to the follow-up to grab Spartans' opener.

Saoirse Noonan (Celtic): Scored a hat-trick, helping her side to a win over Montrose. Her third goal, Celtic’s fourth, was key after Montrose had staged a potential fight-back. At 3-2 it was nervy but Noonan’s strike on 81 minutes eased the tension.

Sofia Maatta (Glasgow City): Not just in the team for her goal, which made life more comfortable for City, but also for her work rate. She was a real threat down the right all afternoon and was always looking to create.

Laura Berry (Motherwell): She’s brought real quality to this side. Four goals this weekend says it all in terms of how important she is to Motherwell.

Lee Gibson talks to BBC Scotland after her 250th appearance in Glasgow City colours.

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Spartans manager Jack Beesley: "I'm delighted with the result but not so delighted with lots of aspects of the performance. We were sloppy in possession and caused quite a lot of problems for ourselves. We probably didn't handle going 3-0 up particularly well but I'm delighted with the three points."

Aberdeen captain Hannah Stewart: "Spartans started strong, pressed us high up the pitch and we took a while to figure out our own shape. It was just a bad day on the pitch overall and one to forget. We'll look at the positives, forget the negatives and move on."

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Hearts manager Eva Olid: "I'm frustrated, I don't think it was a 2-0 game. They were more clinical than us but I don't think they were the better team. Our pressing in the first half wasn't good enough but in the second half we improved. I don't think they were the better team, they will say they were but not for me."

Rangers manager Jo Potter: "I thought we were dominant, controlled the game for the most part which is pleasing. It's a tough place to come to, Hearts are a tough team to play against so we needed to make sure we're doing what we had to. We needed to get three points because that was the most important thing."

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Dundee United boss Suzy Shepherd: "It's another sore one. We need to start doing the basics well as a team when we do have the ball and we need to be brave enough to retain it. We have got to keep believing and keep working hard."

Partick Thistle manager Brian Graham: "To come away from home and score four goals is pleasing but the number of efforts on goal we had, we have to score more it's as simple as that."

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Celtic boss Elena Sadiku: "The second half was awful, it's not our standards and I'm really disappointed. We won, that's the most important but conceding two goals and not scoring more, I'm not happy at all."

Montrose manager Craig Feroz: "I'm really pleased with the performance. It's probably the first time we've competed against the top teams. We gave them a game and I'm really proud of my team. I'm over the moon with the performance and the big thing is working out how we gave that performance and how we can do it again."

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Queen's Park boss Craig Joyce: "I'm massively disappointed with how we performed. I think we underperformed in every department. I don't think we picked ourselves up from last week which you can't really afford to do in this league. I don't think there's many positives we can take from the game. A poor day at the office for us."

Motherwell boss Paul Brownlie: "I'm delighted with the performance, we looked very strong, lots of attacking variations, scored some good goals so I'm really pleased with the performance from start to finish. A strong performance, a strong three points and a clean sheet."

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Glasgow City manager Leanne Ross: "I think being able to get back to our normal routine has had a big impact on the performance we've been able to put on. We've had good performances already this season and we've maybe just not had the rewards in front of goal so to get the three goal victory is really pleasing.

Hibs manager Grant Scott: "I think the defeat confirms we've got a lot to work on as a group. We know where we are in terms of the league set-up and that kind of confirmed it. We were a little bit off the pace and City were very good."

After another big weekend for women's football, we want your thoughts on all the talking points.

In the SWPL, Rangers returned top with a 2-0 win over Hearts while Glasgow City remain right on their tail with that 3-0 victory at home to Hibs.

Elsewhere, Celtic were 1-0 winners over Vorskla Poltava in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier.

Have your say on the action here, external.

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Murphy Agnew says Celtic's first-leg victory over Vorskla Poltava on Sunday gives them even more motivation to progress to the Champions League group stage.

Elena Sadiku's side face the Ukrainian side again in Airdrie on Thursday night after winning 1-0 thanks to Agnew's early goal. The winner of the tie progresses to the group stage.

"It's exactly what we wanted to do," the forward told CelticTV, external.

"We wanted to win this game to go into the next one with a victory. It gives us a really good leg up going into the next game.

"Thursday will be another really good game, if we win we'll do something we've never done before so that's more motivation."

Charlotte Cohen
BBC Sport Scotland

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Celtic captain Kelly Clark says her side "can hurt anyone" as they look to make the Champions League group stage at Vorskla Poltava's expense.

The SWPL champions, having seen off KuPS of Finland and Lithuanians Gintra in the opening round, face Ukrainians Vorskla over two legs on Sunday and Thursday at the Albert Bartlett Stadium in Airdrie.

Natalya Zinchenko's side are 29th in Uefa's coefficient table, 53 places above Celtic.

But it was one of the kindest draws Elena Sadiku's team could have had, avoiding five teams ranked between 10 and 17 in Europe.

"The Champions League is not an easy tournament to play in," defender Clark said.

"We've learned that the hard way the last few years when we've been in it.

"No matter what anybody thinks of the draw, I know for a fact that they [Vorskla] will surprise people on Sunday.

"I do not expect it to be a walk in the park. They might give us the ball but it doesn't make it easy.

"Valerenga gave us the ball last year and look how that turned out."

Celtic lost on penalties to Norwegian outfit Valerenga in the first round of the competition last year.

Having taken the game to extra time, the Glasgow side thought Jenny Smith's late goal would send them through but Valerenga netted an equaliser three minutes into injury time.

Clark is hopeful they'll have better fortune this time around.

"When we celebrate each other's mini wins we feel really good about ourselves and each other," she added.

"I think we can hurt anybody."

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Former Scotland captain Gemma Fay believes Celtic will progress to the Champions League group stage, and says it would be "massive" for the SWPL.

Two home games against Ukrainian champions Vorskla Poltova - with the first leg on Sunday - stand between Elena Sadiku's side and the competition proper and Fay believes her former side have a "huge opportunity" to do so.

As is the case in the men's game, teams competing in the same division as the Champions League representative receive a 'solidarity payment' from Uefa, which is designed to share the wealth and help prevent the financial gap growing.

Should Celtic progress to the group stage, the other SWPL clubs stand to make up to £17,000 each, whereas if they bow out to Vorskla, it will be in the region of £8,500.

"If Celtic manage to beat Poltova over the two legs, it's worth about 500,000 euros (£420,000) to Celtic as a club, but in terms of solidarity payments, that starts to flow into Scottish women's football and that's massive," Fay said on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.

"I think they've had quite a kind draw so far. They played KuPS and Gintra in the first round and it was a Saoirse Noonan hat-trick that got them through that first game.

"This is a massive opportunity. I think they should progress through this round.

"I think probably it's more of a mentality thing that's going to halt them from doing so rather than anything else."

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Celtic are closer to the Champions League than ever before, but they still have a steep hurdle to climb.

The Scottish champions welcome their Ukrainian counterparts, Vorskla Poltava, to Airdrie where the winner after the two legs will progress to the group stage.

We'll be at the Albert Bartlett Stadium on Sunday for the first leg, ensuring you don't miss a moment of the action with our live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app. We'll grab interviews too so there'll be plenty of reaction to come.

Kick-off on Sunday is 12:00 BST, and we'll be live just before that to build up to the big one.

While Celtic compete on the European front, there's still five games in the SWPL to enjoy on Sunday.

You can watch Glasgow City take on Hibernian live on the BBC Sport website, appp and iPlayer, with kick-off at Petershill Park 13:00.

We'll also bring live text coverage - which begins at 12:50 - of Spartans v Aberdeen, Queen's Park v Motherwell and Dundee United v Partick Thistle.

Following Celtic's win on Thursday against Montrose, they moved to the summit of the table, so it's not quite a top-of-the-table clash, but the big domestic game, Hearts v Rangers, will be live on BBC Alba as well as the BBC Sport website, app and iPlayer. Kick-off at Oriam is 16:10.

And you can catch all the best of the weekend SWPL action on Sportscene highlights on Monday on BBC Scotland at 19:00.

Nick McPheat
BBC Sport Scotland

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Sixteen goals is a tally most forwards would be pretty content with at the end of a season.

Rangers' Katie Wilkinson has hit that total after just six SWPL games.

The 29-year-old striker joined the Glasgow club from Southampton in June and has since been in outrageous scoring form.

A four-goal debut at Aberdeen was followed by a hat-trick in a win over Partick Thistle.

There was then just the one against Queen's Park, but Wilkinson made up for that by smashing in back-to-back trebles at Montrose and Dundee United before adding another two in the weekend victory over Spartans.

It is safe to say the forward's goals have played an integral part in Rangers' 100% winning start to the SWPL season.

Is that form sustainable as the club aim to reclaim the top-flight title? Well, the team's upcoming fixtures will put it to the test.

In Rangers' next seven league fixtures, they play four of last season's top-half sides, including trips to Hearts, Glasgow City and Hibernian, plus two derbies against Celtic.

After that tricky-looking run, we will have a clearer picture on whether Wilkinson can be the forward to fire the club to another SWPL crown.

"Have Glasgow City lost their edge?"

That's the question Scotland captain and former City defender Rachel Corsie posed on the latest edition of the BBC's Behind the Goals podcast.

City narrowly pipped Motherwell 1-0 at the weekend, while Celtic put three past Partick Thistle and Rangers hit Spartans for six.

Corsie admitted while City are "still getting results" it doesn't appear to be as "fluid or as comfortable" for the former dominant force of the SWPL compared to their big-money rivals.

Leanne Crichton, the former City midfielder and current Motherwell assistant, cited the biggest difference as the sides' prowess up front.

"The difference between those clubs right now is the firepower," Crichton said. "I don't see Glasgow City having the same goal threat that the other teams have.

"Rangers and Celtic have more attacking options, certainly centrally. Whoever they take off is replaced by the same strength, I don't think it ever changes.

"You look at Laura Berry, who has returned to Motherwell on loan. She's already played for Rangers this season, already scored five goals and she's probably viewed as fifth or sixth-choice attacker, hence why she's been sent out on loan.

"Rangers have goals galore, and I don't see City having that same wealth up top, and that's the different.

"I still see City being a top side. They may not have the firepower, but they have grit, determination and experience in their team.

"Time will tell if they have the strength in depth of the squad to keep on the coattails of the leaders right until the very end."

Listen and subscribe to the Behind the Goals Podcast here