Celtic women end their Champions League campaign with a defeat and lessons learned

It was never going to be easy for Celtic when they played in the group stages of the UEFA Women's Champions League. It was a great effort to reach the qualifying rounds as SWPL champions and then to progress to the group stages. Second-placed Rangers fell by the wayside in the qualifying rounds leaving Celtic as the sole Scottish representative in the groups.

Their final group match was on Tuesday night in The Netherlands against Twente and ended in a 3-0 defeat. The tie was pretty much over by half time with all Twente’s goals coming in the first half. Celtic did seem to regroup after the break and turn in a better second-half display though. 

Celtic had kicked off their campaign with a 0-2 defeat at home to Twente back in early October. Over all six group games, there were some good performances at times. It has been a difficult experience, but very much a learning one. Some of the lessons came within the matches as the team adapted and changed to try and deal with the quality opposition.

Celtic faced up to tough competition

In six games they have six losses and just a single goal. That came when they took an early lead at home against Chelsea. The goal difference tally is heavy at minus-16, but they only had one match with more than three goals against. That was a 4-0 defeat away to Real Madrid, three of those came in the final 20 minutes. 

The standard of their three opponents in Real Madrid and Chelsea in particular was very high, so expectations weren't huge. Twente were perhaps below that level but still ahead of Celtic. It’s a disappointment not to have scored more or picked up a point along the way, but realistically that was always going to be difficult to achieve. 

Celtic manager Elena Sadiku only joined the club in January this year. She guided the club to their first league title in an extraordinarily tight finish last May. That gave the side the Champions League opportunity and although it has now ended harshly with zero points, Sadiku is keen to look ahead and will have her eye on taking the learning from this year into a future campaign. 

Her first priority will be to close the nine-point SWPL gap on league leaders Glasgow City, two games in hand will help somewhat. The SWPL title would give them an increased chance as Champions to get past the UEFA qualifying rounds again next season. It will be a tough task, but one Sadiku is ready for.