THERE WAS DISAPPOINTMENT for Ireland’s Louise Quinn and her Fiorentina side as Manchester City took a decisive lead in their Women’s Champions League last-16 tie with a dominant 3-0 victory.
Lauren Hemp and Ellen White scored inside the opening four minutes with substitute Sam Mewis heading home a third in the closing minutes, meaning City are now on a nine-match winning streak in all competitions.
Quinn, formerly of Arsenal and now playing a central role for Fiorentina through her debut season there, played the full 90-plus, while her fellow Irish duo Megan Campbell and Tyler Toland are on the books at City.
Campbell has been absent from the Sky Blues matchday squad for some time following prolonged injury struggles while Donegal teenager Toland is currently on loan at Glasgow City for the season.
City boss Gareth Taylor, who has former Ireland international Alan Mahon as his number two, believes his side are good enough to win the Champions League outright.
“I believe we can win it, I think we’re good enough to win it,” he said in his pre-match press conference.
“Actually achieving that is the hard part. I think cup competitions, you don’t really tend to get any second chances.
“We’ve seen over the years that Lyon have been really consistent in this competition and really dominated, so that’s going to be difficult to change. There’s a lot of really good teams still at this last-16 stage.”
Elsewhere this evening, Chelsea defeated Atletico Madrid 2-0 despite being a player short for 75 minutes while also seeing their Spanish visitors miss two penalties.
A Maren Mjelde penalty in the 59th minute and a strike from Fran Kirby five minutes later gave the Londoners a fighting chance of making the quarter-finals.
However, they were indebted to their German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger who kept out penalties from Deyna Castellanos in the 15th minute and Merel van Dongen, 10 minutes from time.
Atletico’s first penalty had been awarded after Rasheedat Ajibade was brought down by Sophie Ingle. The Chelsea star was red-carded for her troubles.
Jenni Hermoso’s hat-trick -– her first in the competition since August 2011 — ensured a useful advantage for 2019 runners-up Barcelona against 2003 finalists Fortuna Hjorring in a 4-0 win.
Captain Alexia Putellas added the fourth goal for Barcelona with eight minutes remaining.
Defending five-time champions Lyon play the first leg of their last-16 tie on Thursday at home to Brondby of Denmark, with all of the return clashes pencilled in for next week.
- with reporting from Emma Duffy and Press Association
