SWPL Match Summary: Celtic 1-2 Glasgow City

SWPL Match Summary: Celtic 1-2 Glasgow City

We signed off from the first round of ScottishPower Women's Premier League fixtures with a 2-1 win against Celtic and New Douglas Park and extended our lead at the top of the table.

Sofia Määttä returned to the scoresheet for City, giving us the lead after 35 minutes with a fantastic finish inside the box, before Lisa Evans netted her first goal of the season to double our lead on the hour mark.

A late goal from Saoirse Noonan saw the deficit halved, but it proved to be just a consolation as City ran out 2-1 winners to move five points clear at the top of the SWPL standings.

Not only are we sitting top, with the first round of fixtures concluded, we have now played every team in the league and are unbeaten in such matches, dropping points only in a 1-1 draw with Hibernian.

Match Action from New Douglas Park

There were three changes to the starting XI from Wednesday night's UEFA Europa Cup win at the Peasy, with Amy Anderson, Natalia Wróbel and Määttä all introduced.

The first opportunity arrived inside the first three minutes, with Nicole Kozlova heading down from a corner, finding Anderson, before she played it out to Määtta, who saw her strike from range sail wide.

Celtic's maiden chance came when a rebounded ball from a corner was whipped back into the box and met by the head of Noonan, but it did not trouble goalkeeper Lee Gibson and dropped wide of the post. 

The best chance of the game fell to City after 15 minutes when Määtta sent the ball into the box, finding Nicole Kozlova at the back post, and she did ever so well to rise high and head it goalwards, where it was gathered by goalkeeper Lisa Rodgers.

We took the lead with 10 minutes left to go in the first half, and it was thanks to great work from Kozlova, who did so well to keep possession, before threading Määtta through into the box, and she matched her team-mates pass with a great finish into the bottom corner.

In the second half, Wróbel was selfless when she burst into the box and rather than shooting, looked to pick out Abi Harrison, but it was cleared over the bar by Celtic defender Emma Lawton for a City corner before it could reach our No.9.

The hosts were denied from their best opportunity of the game so far just before the hour mark when Gibson made a great reaction save to deny Noonan's header from a ball sent in from a free-kick, before a deflected rebounded effort came back off the crossbar. 

We doubled our advantage with 30 minutes left to go and what an effort it was from Evans. She was picked out on the overlap by Määttä, and unleashed a strike from a tight angle at the right-side of the box which dropped over goalkeeper Rodgers.

After extending our advantage, Gibson made another fine stop, this time pushing Lawton's header away from danger.

The hosts grabbed a late consolation goal through Noonan's low drive into the bottom corner, but we showed a great response in the dying minutes when Kozlova was denied a certain goal by an outstretched Rodgers at her near post.

Full-time: Celtic 1-2 Glasgow City

Glasgow City goals: Määttä 35, Evans 61

Celtic goals: Noonan 81

Glasgow City: Gibson; Evans, Smit, Golob, Muir, Anderson, Wróbel (Lockwood), Motlhalo, Määttä (Whelan), Kozlova, Harrison (Forrest)

Subs not used: Clachers, Warrington, McLaughlin, Tanaka, Brownlie, Boyes

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