Glasgow City dominated at Broadwood Stadium today in a 3-0 win against nine-time Maltese Women’s League champions Birkikara in the First Qualifying Round of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
A trio of goals from Clare Shine, Priscilla Chinchilla and Vital Kats secured the win today after a hard fought battle from Birkikara who sat deep and allowed the pressure from City.
Glasgow City started off as they meant to go on with a couple of early chances worked well by Lauren Davidson down the right side.
It didn’t take long for the 15-time Scottish League Champions to find the back of the net in the form of a spectacular strike from distance for Shine over the head of Birkikara keeper Janice Xuereb.
Chinchilla doubled City’s lead at the 15 minute mark after bringing a long ball down at the edge of the 18, beating a defender and curling the ball into the top right corner.
The Costa Rican native almost grabbed a second from Davidson’s driven ball across the face of the goal in the 20th minute, but was denied by the keeper.
City kept pushing ahead in the first half maintaining the majority of possession and drawing several scoring opportunities. Chinchilla played a penetrating ball through to Agata Pimenta on the 29th minute dragging the ball just wide.
Just before the half time whistle, Kats bagged her first Glasgow City goal with a fabulous finish inside the box from a driven ball in by Julia Molin.
Birkikara held strong in the second half, keeping City’s several chances out the back of the net for the entire 45 minutes of consistent pressure.
In the 69th minute, Chinchilla drew a foul right on the edge of the 18-yard box with the Shine’s low driven free kick easily scooped up by Xeureb.
Niamh Noble came on in the 77th minute to make her first team debut with Glasgow City, joining youngsters Mya Bates and Taylor Fisher all stepping over the line in the second half for their first UEFA Women’s Champions League experience.
City kept the pressure on throughout the second half, before Birkikara got its first real opportunity of the game in the 89th minute with a free kick on the right hand side of the box - which was easily cleared by City.
Glasgow City play again in the UEFA Women’s Champions League on Saturday.
Glasgow City: Alexander, Walsh, Love, Fulton, Kats, Shine, Clark, Davidson, Pimenta, Molin. Chinchilla
Subs: Clachers, Michie, Lauder, Van Wyk, Farrelly, Colvill, Fisher, Foley, Dodds, Noble, Bates
Birkikara: Xuereb, Zahra, Said, Farrugia, Teuma, Siltana, Guisti, Fartaria, Vella, Zammit, Felice
Subs: Dimech, Parnis, Sciberras, Chetham, Camilleri, Mifsud, Farrugia, Cardona, Rapa, Fenech