THERE could be four Scottish players involved in today’s Uefa Women’s Champions League semi-finals, with Manchester City at home to holders Lyon at 1pm, followed by Chelsea hosting Wolfsburg just over five hours later.
Jen Beattie, who looks the most likely of the quartet to start, Jane Ross and Claire Emslie are in contention for Manchester City, while Erin Cuthbert will be hoping to get game time for Chelsea. It is a dream come true for the precocious 19-year-old from Ayrshire.
At this stage of her career – following a move from Glasgow City some 16 months ago – Cuthbert might have been merely a cameo player in a powerful Chelsea side. Instead she has played 20 domestic games this season, albeit that 10 have been from off the bench, and scored an impressive nine goals.
Her ninth in 19 games for Scotland was scored in the World Cup qualifying win over Poland 12 days ago. Now she has the double-header against Wolfsburg today and next Sunday to look forward to, followed by the SSE Women’s FA Cup final against Arsenal at Wembley the following weekend.
“I’m absolutely loving it and I can’t imagine myself anywhere else,” said Cuthbert. “Every time I come off the bench I try to make an impact and give the manager something to think about in terms of starting me the next time.
“I’m getting more opportunities than probably even I expected – and probably the manager expected. There are so many big players it would be easy to go under the radar but I worked hard in training every day to get noticed, and eventually Emma [Hayes] gave me my opportunity. The fact the other girls trust me is also great and I just really enjoy it.”
Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on away goals in the last 32, but today meet a Wolfsburg side who are three points clear at the top of the Bundesliga despite having played a game less. They have lost just one game in the last 12 months and their
multi-talented squad includes two players who gave Scotland plenty of trouble in the two recent World Cup qualifiers – Switzerland’s Lara Dickenmann and Poland’s Ewa Pajor.
“We’re under no illusions the Wolfsburg games are going to be really tough for us, but I think we’re ready for them,” Cuthbert says. “It helps us psychologically that we’ve already played a German opponent this season and gone through.
“At the start of the season our target was to be competing in all four competitions and obviously we got knocked out in the semi-finals of the Continental Cup. But I would have taken it that we’re still in three of the four at this stage of the season. We want to beat Wolfsburg over the two legs, we want to win the FA Cup and we want to win the league.”
As the attacking midfielder points out, the startling levels of investment in the English game are starting to pay off in Europe’s top competition, which has been dominated by French and German sides – including Wolfsburg, who were winners in 2013 and 2014.
Even allowing for the levels of financial backing, Chelsea and Manchester City face daunting tasks before being able to book flights to the final in Kiev on May 24. That’s especially true of Manchester City who, with a smaller squad, have been faltering. They have slipped three points behind Chelsea in the race for the title and face a Lyon side searching for a third successive Champions League win, and a fifth since 2011.
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