Deputy Sports Editor
Glasgow City midfielder Jo Love has labelled her side’s historic Champions League quarter final with French giants Paris Saint-Germain as ‘the biggest chance in our history’ to reach the final four.
Despite winning a domestic treble in the last three consecutive seasons, it is the first time that the club has ever reached the last eight of the competition.
And Love, who has scored twice in the 14/15 Champions League, is determined to ensure that the cup run does not end there.
“We have a good background staff who will be analysing them,” she said. “I know they had a game last night and they got beat 4-0 by Lyon. We’ll look at what they’re doing, look at what we’re doing and then hopefully take advantage of what they’re not doing well.”
Speaking after a 2-0 friendly loss to Chelsea, she reflected: “I think after today we haven’t been taking our opportunities in the attacking side of the game. I thought we defended quite well, it was just a couple of mistakes that cost us goals. This is only our third game back so hopefully we’ll cut the mistakes out before the season starts.”
Manager Eddie Wolecki Black has added experienced faces to his squad, as City’s domestic dominance shows no signs of going away. Love said: “We have signed Hayley Lauder, who played professionally in Sweden so that is good experience for us and Rhonda Jones, who is a well-known name in Scottish women’s football.
“Hopefully the additions are going to strengthen the squad. I feel that we’ve got a strong core, and have had for a number of years. It’s good just to add to that experience which we’ve got here, bring some fresh legs in and younger players. It’s a good balance.”
Qualifying wins against Nove Zamky, Glentoran and FC Zhilstroy saw the team faced with Polish outfit Medyk Konin. Two goals down from the first leg in Poland, City levelled the tie and Denise O’Sullivan’s strike, early in extra time, secured a place in the last 16.
A dramatic 5-4 aggregate win over FC Zurich, when City needed to score twice in the final 23 minutes, clinched a quarter final berth.
Asked if the players take encouragement from the never-say-die performances, Love said: “Of course we do. It’s quite obvious that we are going to be underdogs going into this game. We are going to focus on our game and put everything into it because it is going to be the biggest chance in our history.”
City’s opponents, PSG, despite losing heavily to league leaders Lyon, will look to build on a host of impressive performances this season. Since August, the Parisians have played 24 games and hit the back of the net 85 times. In January, Farid Benstiti’s team recorded 3-0, 5-0, 10-0 and 7-0 wins over Juvisy, Issy, Soyaux Charente and St Etienne respectively.
But Love was defiant in the face of the club’s biggest ever European tie: “We’ve got nothing to lose and we’re just going to go for it.”
