No media conference with Fran Alonso ahead of this evening’s vital SWPL1 trip to Oriam, Scotland’s Sports Performance Centre, in Edinburgh to play Hearts.
Celtic are two points adrift of league leaders theRangers who we play on Sunday afternoon at Penny Cars Stadium in Airdrie, so a win this evening is absolutely vital if Celtic want to go into the weekend match knowing that a win will see them leapfrog the current league leaders.
And while Alonso’s side are on a high after their 1-0 SWPL Cup quarter final win over theRangers at the weekend, they are still frustrated at dropping two points at home to Spartans in the last league match. Annoyingly out of the top three – Celtic, champions Glasgow City and theRangers – those two points dropped to Spartans are the only ones conceded so no mistake can be made this evening. A win is absolutely vital.
Fran Alonso did speak to Colette Carr the official website for Celtic FC Women and for now is forgetting all about the win against theRangers in the cup tie at Murray Park or the prospect of repeating the trick this Sunday, for him his entire focus is on beating Hearts.
“It’s a team that haven’t conceded more the three goals all season, so defensively they are very, very good and they are threat on the counter,” the Celtic FC Women manager stated.
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“(the)Rangers beat them 3-0 and City only 2-0, so they aren’t a team who get smashed in games because they are well-organised. We need to try to play with intensity from the beginning and impose our own game and hopefully we can score early and not get frustrated.
“It’s the most important game of the season because it’s the next. The games after Hearts aren’t important right now. We will try to win the game but we know it won’t be easy.
“We obviously failed to win in the previous league game despite creating ten chances and 25 shots, so it’s very important we show a clinical edge we didn’t show in our last game.”
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Hearts have added Alonso’s Spanish compatriot Eva Olid to their squad since the last meeting of the sides at the start of the season in the SWPL Cup, in a match that Celtic won 2-0. Alonso will know doubt have a few words to say to another Spanish import into the Scottish game this evening.
“When we played them Eva was still in Spain and I think they have improved since then. They are a very well drilled team and they haven’t conceded more than three for a reason. They’re a very young team, but they are well-drilled and they don’t leave gaps, especially in the central areas, and they have good concentration levels, so as you say, it’ll be a tough game and the girls know.
“It is very important to get the three points though if we can.”
The first league meeting of last season in Edinburgh ended in Celtic reaching double figures in a 10-0 win. That’s highly unlikely this time around and we’ll settle for the three points and maybe a 3-0 win, with a maximum number of substitutes being used to save legs for the weekend.
You can read Niall J’s match preview below.
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