Women's Champions League: Medyk Konin 2-0 Glasgow City

Image source, Laura Montgomery

Image caption, Glasgow City play the second leg at the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie next week
  • Author, Cheri Burns
  • Role, 大象传媒 Scotland

Defensive errors cost Glasgow City as they lost to Medyk Konin in the first leg of their round of 32 tie in the Uefa Women's Champions League.

Despite Morgan Marlborough and Eilish McSorley being among those to test home goalkeeper Anna Szymanska, City were unable to find an away goal.

And second-half strikes from Ewa Pajor and Aleksandra Sikora gave the Polish champions victory.

The second leg is at Airdrie's Excelsior Stadium next Wednesday.

City, for so long the dominant force in Scotland, will need a much improved performance if they are to have a chance of progressing.

The visitors, who reached the last 16 last season, were guilty of some slipshod defending when conceding two goals inside 10 minutes after failing to capitalise on a strong start.

Denise O'Sullivan and Marlborough were prominent in the opening stages, with Szymanska thwarting the latter with a great save.

Fiona Brown and Lauren McMurchie were next to try their luck as Eddie Wolecki Black's team continued to press but there was a fright when Patrycja Balcerzak hammered wide after the City backline failed to deal with a free-kick.

The Poles posed a greater threat in the second half, with Konin captain Anna Gawronska and Sandra Zigic at the heart of the attack.

But City gave as good as they got and were inches away from netting when McSorley connected with a Jo Love delivery only to be denied by the impressive Syzmanska.

That missed chance was quickly followed by Konin's opening goal.

It was Pajor who sunk her eighth goal of the campaign when she punished Nicola Docherty for failing to deal with a diagonal cross by slotting past Lee Alexander.

City did not let their heads go down, with Marlborough and Julie Nelson aiming for the target with decent attempts.

But, the result was put beyond doubt on 64 minutes as a flowing team move ended with Sikora curling in a smart second goal.

Glasgow City head coach Eddie Wolecki Black: "We certainly never performed and in football, especially at Champions League level you need to perform. We had chances but unfortunately we never took them when they came along.

"The first goal is very disappointing as when there are multiple errors it will end up in the back of your net and that is what happened. The second one was one of those things that happen. The girl has went to cross it and it has gone in off the back post.

"However, if ever we needed motivation to turn this around we just needed to look at their celebrations at the final whistle. The crowd was the 12th player for them without a doubt and I hope we can get the same numbers and noise behind us next week as it really does make a difference."