BRONDBY Stadium, on the western outskirts of Copenhagen, provided the impressive backdrop for Glasgow City's 2-0 excellent win over the hosts on Wednesday. A second Champions League quarter-final appearance will follow if the job is completed at Petershill Park a week on Thursday.

Every City player deserves credit for their discipline and massive effort on a night when the size of the pitch and wet conditions should have favoured the physically-imposing home side. But as athletic as Brondby were, they lacked the finesse of City's playmakers, and their own mistakes contributed to City's vital away goals.

So, how did the result, and performance, rank among the many City have amassed since making their first European appearance in 2005? Leanne Ross, who joined the club two years later, rates the 2-0 outcome as among the best.

“When we arrived on Tuesday night for training and saw the stadium we were saying it reminded us a lot of FC Twente when we went over and played them [in October, 2013],” the 38-year-old defender and captain pointed out.

“It was the same kind of stadium, same kind of team – physical and quick in the wide areas – same kind of battling performance, and we came away with the same result.”

Ross was one of six City players who started both games, the others being Lee Alexander, Eilish McSorley, Nic Docherty, Jo Love and Leanne Crichton. The earlier match at De Grolsch Veste in Enschede was at the end of a qualifying group with both City and Twente having swept aside the champions of Croatia and Malta.

Goals from Rachel Corsie and Sarah Crilly took City into the last 32. They beat Standard Liege before succumbing to an Arsenal managed by Shelley Kerr.

Then, as was the case the following season when City reached the quarter-finals before being beaten by Paris Saint-Germain, Eddie Wolecki Black was the head coach. Should they reach the last eight again it will be for the first time under Scott Booth.

DESPITE their advantage, it will take another huge effort for City to prevail over the two legs. The bad news is that midfielder Leanne Crichton received her second yellow card of the tournament in Copenhagen and will be suspended.

As she proved when coming into Scotland's side for the third game at the World Cup, Crichton is adept at both breaking up the opposition's play and linking up her own team's.

“Losing her is a huge blow,” Booth said. “She's a massive part of the central midfield for us. Her experience is really important – she's a calming influence and has also got the physical aspect of defending in her own box and attacking in the opposition's.

“When you get to these stages of tournaments players do pick up cards. In games like the one in Brondby you have to tackle and get in the faces of the opposition, particularly away from home, and you never know how the referee is going to react.

“From a positive aspect we could have had two or three players missing for the second leg.”

BY the time Brondby arrive in Glasgow, City will almost certainly be Scottish champions for a record 13th successive time.

It could even happen today if they beat a Forfar Farmington side who haven't won a league game since February, and Hibernian fail to beat Rangers at Ainslie Park. Should City and Hibs both win, Booth and his players have another opportunity against Motherwell in a rearranged game at Ravenscraig on Wednesday night.

AT the other end of the table, bottom club Stirling University host Forfar at Ochilview in BBC Alba's televised Friday night match. Both sides have played 17 games, yet can only muster seven points between them.

Four of these came in the two drawn games between the pair earlier in the season. Although it also depends on what happens in their matches today, should Forfar win on Friday they will almost certainly condemn Stirling to SWPL2 football next season.