Celtic Women put in a brave performance in last night’s Champions League clash with Chelsea at Parkhead.
The Ghirls were unfortunate to walk away empty-handed against England’s heavyweights as they lost 2-1 to the Blues on their own patch.
It was a difficult evening for manager Elena Sadiku’s side who had taken the lead through Murphy Agnew. The striker latched onto a fantastic through-ball by Amy Gallacher and poked it past Zećira Mušović to break the deadlock.
It was a momentous moment for the Hoops as it marked their first-ever goal in the Women’s Champions League after they qualified for the first time this term.
Maika Hamano would level proceedings, albeit goalkeeper Kelsey Daugherty might have done better before Ashley Lawrence won the game with a strike at the third time of asking.
The Blues were dominant from then on and even a late red card for Aggie Beever-Jones could not halt their momentum.
The result leaves Celtic Women without a win from their first three matches in the competition but is the second time boss Sadiku has praised their efforts.
Celtic Women scored their first-ever Champions League goal vs Chelsea
Last time, Sadiku lauded Celtic’s bravery against Real Madrid despite a 4-0 defeat and she was full of pride last night.
The Swedish coach insisted she felt Celts were the team in the ascendancy towards the end of the game and were unfortunate not to equalise.
And while it was another defeat, the boss believes her side continue to grow as a team and will learn from their experience.
What Elena Sadiku said about Celtic’s defeat at Parkhead
Obviously I’m gutted because I think we deserved more,” Sadiku said. “ I think we were the team that looked closest to scoring a goal in the last, not Chelsea.
“But I am very proud of the girls. What a performance, what an effort. They followed through with the game plan exactly as I wanted to do.
“It’s not only that, I talked about being confident and brave before the game. If you look at that game, you can see players with a lot of confidence. I’m very pleased and I’m very proud.
“We’ve been growing into the competition. Tonight, we showed everything that we can do.
“The confidence that we get from this performance can only make us stronger. The girls know who we can compete against. Hopefully the first points will come.
