GLASGOW City are just two games away from a place in the new lucrative 16-team group stage of the Champions League. They beat Kazakhstan side BIIK Shymkent 1-0 on Saturday night to win a place in yesterday's second round draw, which in turn paired them with Swiss champions Servette.
Costa Rica internationalist Priscilla Chinchilla was the match winner at Broadwood, taking advantage of a defensive error to score the decisive goal after 61 minutes. She also found the net in the earlier 3-0 win over Birkirkara which set up the mini-tournament final.
All teams participating in the group stage will receive a minimum of £345,000, which is a five-fold increase on the money paid to teams in the previous knock out last 16. City reached that phase on five occasions, twice making in through to the quarter finals.
The first leg of the Servette game will be in Geneva next Tuesday or Wednesday, and Chinchilla said: “We have just over a week to prepare so it won't be easy, but we'll be trying our hardest to progress again.”
💬 | Interim Head Coach @GrantAScott on the @UWCL R2 draw today. pic.twitter.com/iS8Bgy9z1a
— Glasgow City FC | #OCAC 🧡🖤 (@GlasgowCityFC) August 22, 2021
Servette won their first Swiss Super League title earlier in the year at the expense of dominant club FC Zurich. They weren't too convincing in their first round mini-tournament, squeezing past Glentoran 1-0 before qualifying for the second round with the same scoreline against Finnish hosts Aland United.
The quirky nature of the new format tournament meant that the Scottish champions couldn't be paired against any of Europe's major clubs yesterday. Manchester City, Arsenal, record seven-time Champions League winners Lyon and other big names were all in a separate draw, while four others, including holders Barcelona and losing finalists Chelsea, go straight into the group stage.
Manchester City will play Real Madrid in the second round, with the first leg in the Spanish capital, while Arsenal play Sparta Prague. Levante, who won Celtic's mini-tournament, were drawn against Lyon.
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