City draw with Dutch in Euro opener
Glasgow City started their European campaign in excellent fashion today with a 1-1 draw with fully professional Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar.
Leading up to the match City were fraught with difficulties with Jill Paterson and Rachel Corsie having to pull out of the starting line up due to injuries. In stepped Kirsty McNicol and Danielle Stewart to take their place, with Stewart in particular brought in only moments before kick off, after Corsie had aggravated a niggling injury during the warm up.
Alkmaar started the game strongly and had most of the possession in the first ten minutes, but without threatening the City goal. Their first strike on goal however, proved to be decisive when an Alkmaar midfielder hit a fantastic shot from distance which flew into City keeper Angie Livingstone’s, top left hand corner.
Despite suffering the early set-back City began to take control of the match and nearly equalised when a great shot from striker Jane Ross cannoned off the cross bar and away to safety. Chances continued to come and on City’s third corner kick, Stewart rose expertly in the middle of the Alkmaar box to power her header past the Dutch keeper.
Half time 1-1
In the second half, City continued to dominate play and Jane Ross had an excellent chance to put City ahead, but delayed too long to get her shot away and was closed down. Another opportunity then fell to Leanne Ross 40 yards out after Kat Lindner had rounded the goalkeeper and had her shot blocked by an Alkmaar defender, however, it was a difficult chance for Ross to take first time and her effort went wide.
Midway through the second half, Alkmaar had another excellent long range effort, which Livingstone saved down low to her right brilliantly.
With only a few minutes left, Alkmaar could have stole the game after Livingstone had saved and the rebound fell to an Alkmaar forward. However, a joint effort from Leanne Ross and Emma Fernon ensured the ball did not cross the line.
Full time 1-1.
Playing in temperatures of over 90 degrees, this was a tough match physically for our girls but they showed their fitness, strength and ability throughout the whole 90 minutes. Quite rightly boss Peter Caulfield was proud of his players.
He said, “Losing two of our starting eleven on match day and one moments before kick was not ideal. We also had to travel to Europe without the club’s record all time goalscorer Sue Lappin, so I was beginning to think that the odds were stacked against us. However, once again, we proved that this is a squad game and all of our players are of fantastic quality and can step in and play anywhere and anytime. We even had striker Mellissa Stirling on at half time playing centre half as Kirsty McNicol had to go off injured. We started the game a little tentatively but for the second period of the first half and the vast majority of the second half I thought we were better side. To produce a display of this magnitude against a team full of professionals and in this heat was outstanding. I think we made a few people sit up and take notice today. We must now recuperate and hope we have less players lining up outside the physio room. We play the hosts ZFK Masinac on Saturday, who are also professional and given they beat the Moldovan team 14-1 today, we know it will be an extremely difficult game”.
04.09.08
