UWCL – Glasgow City 0-1 Sparta Prague

Match report by Ben McNicol

Glasgow City bowed out of the UEFA Women’s Champions League at the last 32 stage after failing to overturn a first-leg deficit against Sparta Prague.

City trailed 2-1 coming into Wednesday’s fixture following last week’s defeat in the Czech capital and things didn’t start ideally as Lucie Martinkovà latched onto Nicole Robertson’s misplaced pass and fired beyond Lee Alexander to give the visitors an early advantage.

Scott Booth’s side pushed numbers forward to try turn the tie on its head but Leanne Ross’ late penalty miss summed up what was a tough evening in a very bad-tempered affair, where referee Silvia Andreia Rosa Domingos was guilty of losing control of the game.

The home side also had a disallowed goal on the 35th minute when Tyler Toland’s 30-yard screamer flew into the top corner, but the match official bizarrely judged there to have been a foul in the lead up.

It was a game with very few clear-cut chances and was more about the crunching tackles, five yellow cards, one red card, and the allegations of spitting from the Sparta Prague players.

However, the Czech’s probably should’ve doubled their lead shortly after the hour mark when Adela Odehnalovà’s defence-splitting pass sent Martinkovà through one-on-one. After she rounded Alexander it looked destined to be 2-0 but Jenna Clark tracked back to make a goal-line clearance.

Sparta Prague were reduced to 10 players with five minutes remaining when Pavlìna Nepokojovà received a second yellow for a reckless challenge on Leanne Crichton before City were awarded a penalty with one-minute remaining.

Ross’ penalty was a good one, but credit must go to Hana Sloupovà who made a sublime save to help secure her side’s place in the last 16 for the first time since 2017.

Scott Booth said to Glasgow City FC: “I’m just disappointed we started the game so badly with the mistakes we made and that gave them a head start. Tonight, was a game where I felt as if we had to keep a clean sheet and had we done that it would’ve been about trying to nick a goal somewhere along the lines and put the pressure on them. If you take that goal out of it, the game was very even game.”

Leanne Ross said to BBC ALBA: “We’re obviously disappointed as we gave a sloppy goal away at the start of the game, but in terms of the performance I think we can be proud of the fact we went out and played the game in the right manner. I think they {Sparta Prague’s} behaviour was a bit despicable.”

Glasgow City: Alexander, Wyne, Lauder, Love, Toland, Clark, Ross, Colvill, Wade, Foley, Roberton

Sparta Prague: Sloupovà, Odehnalovà, Bertholdovà, Martinkovà, Pochmanovà, Sonntàgova, Vyštejnovà, Stàrovà, Nepokojovà, Bužkovà, Dlaskovà