Celtic FC Women have made it through to Round Two of the Women’s Champions League for the first time in the team’s history with a 2-0 Saturday win over Lithuanian champions FC Gintra.
The first round of the tournament is split into four-team mini-tournaments and Celtic successfully came through their semi-final mid-week with a 3-1 extra-time victory against Finnish standouts KuPS.
That set up this evening’s final against Gintra, a team who have far more experience at this level than Celtic do.
Shannon McGregor comes up big for Celtic FC Women
Summer signing Shannon McGregor, who joined from Hibernian, did the star turn to power the Ghirls towards victory. She scored her first-ever goal for the club after 22 minutes with an impressive left-footed strike.
Elena Sadiku’s side had a massive chance to make the game more comfortable shortly afterwards with a penalty but Mathilde Carstens missed the spot kick.
It then became a rather nervy affair until Kit Loferski doubled Celtic’s advantage in the 81st minute and put the result beyond doubt.
The European result everyone has craved finally arrives
The women’s side have only featured in the Champions League twice before and suffered a penalty heartbreak against Valerenga in last season’s Round One final.
However, after then becoming SWPL champions last term, they entered the more favourable Champions Path this time around and have made the big push forward everyone wanted.
Round Two is a straight two-legged knockout tie and will be much tougher. Potential foes such as Slavia Prague and Roma are lying in wait.
The draw for that takes place on Monday so we won’t have to wait long to find out the team’s fate. Qualification from Round 2 would see the team enter the Group Stage alongside the biggest and best teams on the continent.
