Scottish sides best hope of Irish representation in Champions League for both men and women

A detailed view of a UEFA Women's Champions League Match Ball on the pitch on the inside of the stadium prior to the UEFA Women's Champions League final between Barcelona and Wolfsburg last season

A detailed view of a UEFA Women's Champions League Match Ball on the pitch on the inside of the stadium prior to the UEFA Women's Champions League final between Barcelona and Wolfsburg last season Credit: Photo by Tullio Puglia - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images

The Champions League group-stages get going this week with very little Irish involvement for Irish players. Ireland’s best hope is that Liam Scales gets a run-out for Celtic.

Having started their last three matches, he has been named in the Hoops squad to face Feyenoord away on Tuesday.

However, another club from the Scottish capital – Glasgow City - is on the brink of making the group stages of the Women’s Champions League with a squad containing four Irish senior internationals.

Women’s Champions League

The UEFA Women’s Champions League second round knock out matches take place next month. Overall there are six Irish players still in the competition who are hoping to win their ties and earn a place in the group stages which begin in November.

League of Ireland champions Shelbourne finished third in their first round group last month and so exited the competition (as did Katie McCabe’s Arsenal who lost to Paris).

Shels were beaten by Scottish champions Glasgow City whose squad contains four Irish women – Aoife Colvill, Claire Walsh, Emily Whelan and Abbie Larkin (who fresh from her World Cup appearances made the move from Shamrock Rovers to Scotland last week).

Glasgow play Norwegian side Brann in the next round.

Diane Caldwell, who made quite the impression with her comments about Vera Pauw on Monday, has moved to FC Zurich this season from Reading and the Swiss champions play Ajax in the second round.

Aoife Mannion (who misses the upcoming UEFA Nations League game due to injury) will be hoping that her Manchester United can make the group stages. They face Paris Saint German in second round.



Group stages

The winners of the second round home and away knock out ties (seven in the Champions path and five in the League path) join Barcelona, Lyon, Bayern Munich and Chelsea in the 16 team (four group) group stage.

 

 

 

 



About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile