By Graham Falk
A tale of two half’s saw Glasgow City draw 2-2 with Celtic in the SWPL this afternoon at the Penny Cars Stadium.
First half trikes from Clare Shine (32) and Lauren Davidson (40) had put City in control but were cancelled out by an Olivia Chance brace (53, 63) as the Hoops rallied second half.
There were two changes from the midweek Champions League defeat to Servette for City, interim head coach Grant Scott bringing in Julia Molin and Davidson for Agata Filipa and Mairead Fulton.
And it was the returning Davidson who almost put the away side in the lead early when she found herself in acres of space after only three minutes, though her shot would sadly sail wide of Chloe Logan’s goal.
The Hoops stopper had to be at her very best shortly afterwards to keep out a venomous 25-yard drive from Molin as City dominated the early stages.
City would go ahead shortly after the half hour mark though through a magnificent solo goal from in form Shine. A quick corner routine with Priscila Chincilla would see Shine drive into the box and rifle into the bottom corner.
The Champions would deservedly double their lead shortly afterwards when some fantastic control from Ode Fulutudilu would see the ball land to Davidson in the box and she made no mistake from close range.
Fran Alonso’s side would drag themselves back into the game early in the second period when half time substitute Olivia Chance finished off a neat break by firing beyond Lee Alexander.
Shine could have restored the lead moments later but the Irish striker’s header went agonisingly wide.
Celtic would continue to pressure and found themselves level just after the hour mark when, once again, Hoops substitutes Chance and Shen would team up to put the home side level.
The best chance of the second period fell to Shine with just seven minutes left for the away side, but she was unable to squeeze the ball home after superb work down the left from Chincilla.
In the end, last season’s top two had to settle for a share of the spoils as the first Glasgow derby of the season ended level.
Celtic: Logan, Bartle, Craig, Larisey (Shen 45), Harkes, Clark, Atkinson (Chance 45), Hayes, Wellings, Warrington (Toland 73), Bowie.
Glasgow City: Alexander, Walsh, Love, Fulutudilu (Fulton 65), Shine, Davidson (Dodds 85), Van Wyk, Molin, Farrelly, Chinchilla, Foley.