Arsenal could face Glasgow City in a women’s football Battle of Britain following the draw for the knock-out stages of the Champions League.
By Tony Leighton
The two teams will face each other in the Round of 16 if both come through their two-leg Round of 32 ties.
Britain’s other representatives, Birmingham City, have been drawn against Finnish team PK-35 Vantaa in the Round of 32.
Women’s Super League champions Arsenal must overcome Kazakhstan’s top team team Kairat in their first outing.
And Scottish Women’s Premier League champions Glasgow have to beat Belgium’s Standard Liege to progress.
Arsenal’s Scottish manager Shelley Kerr, a former captain of her national team, said: “I’d like to see Glasgow City go through to the last 16.
“But if that happens and we’re there to play against them then national feelings and passion will be put aside, because I would want Arsenal to win the tie.
“I can’t think to much about the last 16 though. It seems a lifetime away and all I’m thinking about right now is trying to win WSL matches.
“When it comes to playing Kairat we’ll have to do our homework because we don’t know a lot about them. But in any case we’ll concentrate on ourselves.”
Glasgow boss Eddie Woleckie Black refuses to speculate on possibly meeting Arsenal. “No doubt people are going to talk about a potential last 16 tie,” he said.
“But it would be disrespectful to Standard Liege to even think about that as they are a good side and we should be focusing on taking each round as it comes.”
The Gunners, Glasgow and Birmingham will all play at home in the second leg of their Round of 32 ties, set for October 9/10 and October 16/17.
Birmingham, runners-up in last season’s WSL, will take on either Icelandic team Thor/KA or Russia’s Zorkiy Krasnogorsk in the Round of 16 if they beat Vantaa.
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