International Round Up

Northern Ireland kicked off their World Cup Qualifiers with a trip to Scotland on Saturday.   Jane Ross scored her first international goal within 3 minutes.  Northern Ireland held on strong and defended well at a rainy Fir Park and had a few shots on goal with Sarah McFadden narrowly going over the crossbar just before half time.

 

It took until the 78^th minute for Scotland to increase the lead with a goal from Montpellier defender, Jennifer Beattie.  The Scots continued with the pressure and looked impressive passing the ball around the pitch. 

 

Goalkeeper Emma Higgins committed herself and prevented the lead from increasing further but ended up suffering a few knocks in the closing stages of the match. 

Scotland finished this game top of Group 4 with 9 points in their 3 games of the campaign so far. Northern Ireland were the only team in Group 4 who hadn’t played a game until Saturday.

 

England welcomed neighbours Wales to The Den on Saturday night.  England dominated the match but couldn’t find the back of the net in the first half. 

 

Jordan Nobbs and Toni Duggan ensured that England kept their 100% record of the Qualifiers keeping them at the top of Group 6 after 3 games.  Wales are sitting in second place, a game behind England. 

 

Welsh captain Jess Fishlock injured her wrist in the first half and had to leave the field of play in the second half.  This later was confirmed as a broken wrist and leaves her in doubt for their next game against Montenegro.

 

Northern Ireland host Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday evening while Scotland are away to Poland and England are away to Turkey on Thursday.

 

More results and fixtures can be found at Uefa.com

 

*images from SFA & BBC

British Trio Book Place in Last 16 of Champions League

Arsenal, Birmingham and Glasgow City all booked their place in the last 16 of the Women’s Champions League.  The 3 British teams had impressive wins in the second leg of their games which were played on Wednesday and Thursday.

Birmingham City played Finish side Pk-35 on Wednesday afternoon, winning the game 1-0 thanks to a goal from Chelsea Weston.  Birmingham already had the upper hand as they had come away with a 3-0 win in Finland in the first leg.

SSHVSM-Kairat arrived in London to play Arsenal with a 7-1 defeat clearly playing on their mind.  It would have been a tough task if they were to gain anything from the second leg.  Arsenal dominated this fixture with an 11-1 win.  Goals came from Carter (x4), Little (x3), Nobbs (x2) and one goal each for White and Weir. 

On Thursday night Glasgow City took on Belgium side Standard Liege in a 7pm kick off.  Both sides had all to play for after a 2-2 draw in Belgium the week before.  It took 15 minutes before the deadlock was broken by Suzanne Malone making it 1-0 to the Glasgow side.  Two more goals followed by O’Sullivan and Crilly before a late goal by Wullaert made it 3-1 on the night (5-3 on aggregate)

This leads to exciting ties between Glasgow City and Arsenal Ladies next month while Birmingham City take on Russian side Zorkiy.  Games will be played on the 8^th & 13^th November. 

Star Quality in the U17 Elite Tournament

Yesterday Northern Ireland held the first of 6 games in the Elite Round Group 4 European Championship (U17 women).  I went along to Solitude in Belfast to watch the 2pm game which was between the current World Champions (France) and the current European Champions (Poland).

It was a great experience to have the chance to watch two very talented sides with future stars in the making.  It took 26 minutes before one of them could break the deadlock and that came from a goal from Marine Julian for the World Champions.  Until then the game had been quite even with both sides playing very good football.

France began to assert a physical edge to their play on the pitch, resulting in a goal in the 32^nd minute, Anissa Lahmari allowing les bleues to take a 2-0 lead into the break.

The second half really showed France’s strength and dominance on the pitch.  They looked powerful and positive.  Poland kept at it though but were unable to find the back of the net.  Due to a couple of injuries there was 4 minutes of added on time in the second half and with one minute left to go, substitute Manon Uffen made it 3-0 to France.

Northern Ireland played Sweden last night but unfortunately I was unable to attend this game.  Sweden had 19 shots at goal during the match but it ended 2-0 to Sweden with both goals coming from the number 17, Rebecka Blomqvist in the 28^th and 56^th minutes. 

The next games are being played on Monday with Poland v Sweden at 2pm at Ballymena Showgrounds and France v Northern Ireland being held at Stangmore Park, Dungannon at 7pm

Champions League Update

Yesterday was a busy day in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.  We are down to the last 32 and with 3 British teams in the competition I was watching my twitter feed and hoping that they all came away with at least a draw. 

Arsenal headed to Kazakhstan to face CSHVSM-Kairat where they came away with an impressive 7-1 victory.  Goals from Little (2), Carter, Nobbs, Chapman, Yankey & Ayisi made sure The Gunners go into their home tie with a comfortable cushion of away goals.

PK-35 hosted Birmingham in their tie yesterday.   Birmingham beat the Finnish side 3-0 with goals from Lawley, Linnett & Harrop.

Glasgow City had a tough match against Standard Liege in Belgium.  Suzanne Lappin helped the Scottish Champions to a 2-2 draw and they will be hoping for a win next week on home turf.

Second leg will be played next Tuesday & Wednesday. 

More information available at uefa.com

Trophy Wins for Liverpool & Arsenal

A lot of things happened in women’s football while I was on holiday.  I seemed to miss the most exciting week of the season while I was enjoying a much needed break in the sun. 

We had to wait until the last day of the season to crown the WSL Champions and this year Liverpool Ladies took that title after an impressive season.  Arsenal had won the last 7 WSL titles but finished a close third in the league this year.

Liverpool went into the game 2 points ahead of second placed Bristol Academy but thanks to a penalty by Louise Fors and a Katrin Omarsdottir goal they took the 3 points and finished top of the league. 

The final standings are shown below:

Team	Plyd	Pts
Liverpool Ladies	14	36
Bristol Academy Women	14	31
Arsenal Ladies	14	30
Birmingham City Ladies	14	18
Everton Ladies	14	15
Lincoln Ladies	14	10
Chelsea Ladies	14	10
Doncaster Rovers Belles	14	10

Lincoln Ladies also played their last ever game before changing to Notts County Ladies.  It was the Lady Imps first Continental Cup Final and they played well but missed out on a victory by two late goals by Arsenal.   Ellen White and Kim Little made sure that Arsenal added another trophy to their cabinet.

*Images from FAWSL