Scottish Women’s Premier League leaders Glasgow City return to European action on Wednesday, taking on Sporting CP at Petershill Park in the round of 16 of the Europa Cup.
And head coach Leanne Ross says her team are feeling good going into the match.
“There’s a confidence there within the squad,” Ross told SheKicks.net on Monday morning, “but as well as that, we need to respect that they’re a difficult opponent. So we’ll use the confidence as much as we can in terms of how we want to play the game – but we certainly need to be respectful that they are going to be a threat as well.
“We need to make sure that we do the things really well that we’ve been doing for the start of the season in terms of being defensively solid and just putting that bit of work rate in individually and collectively to make sure that we’re difficult to break down and we don’t give away opportunities.”
Her squad are unsurprisingly looking forward to the test after their dramatic 6-5 aggregate win over HB Koge in the previous round.
“We’re entitled to be excited after how the previous round ended. I think we fought really hard to make sure that we had this opportunity to be in the competition, so that excitement is genuinely there.
“But also now that we’ve seen Sporting and seen what they can do and the threats that they have, then of course we need to make sure that we respect that and we prepare as well as we can for that threat because it’s not going to be an easy game on Wednesday.”
Leanne Ross: Glasgow City need to be on top form
Ross and her team have of course done their homework on what to expect – and spoken to Rosengard’s goalkeeper coach Shannon Lynn, a former Scotland international, to get hold of the footage of their own match against Sporting in the previous round.
“They’re a very technical team. They play a possession-based style, as we try to do as well. They’re very threatening going forward in the wide areas. The combinations that they have and the relationships that they have within their team cause a threat all over the pitch.
“But there certainly [are] areas that we think that we can then go and hurt them as well.
“The excitement is there, but we know that they are going to be a threat and we’re going to have to be on top form on Wednesday to make sure that we stay in the tie.”
