On Sunday afternoon a little piece of Scottish football history will be made in the Glasgow Cup when the Scottish Cup and League Cup double winners Celtic take on the current SWPL1 Champions, theRangers in the Glasgow Cup – the first time that this old and historic trophy will be played for in the women’s game.
This week Fran Alonso spoke to the Celtic View Editor Paul Cuddihy and this match, how the pre-season training has progressed over at the team’s pre-season trining camp at Gran Canaria and then back at Barrowfield, the grown of the women’s game with the Euros providing great drama, high quality football and large crowds over the past few weeks and of course Fran’s take on the growth of the game particularly relating to his Celtic side.
One thing that wasn’t covered though was the unexpectedly quiet summer Celtic FC Women have had in terms of player signings especially with five first team players fro last season all having left the club.
We’re still expecting at least two new signing ahead of the season starting on 7 August with a visit from Hibs to the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie (also known as the Penny Cars Stadium).
Before that though we have Celtic FC Women’s first ever Glasgow Cup match this Sunday against theRangers – and remember Celtic beat the Murray Park side in both the league Cup and Scottish Cup last season on the way to lifting the trophy. This game is open to Celtic supporters ONLY and kicks off at 2pm on Sunday, so an ideal wee opportunity to get some extra Celtic action this weekend.
Fran Alonso will have his eyes on more silverware and completing a cup treble. Details for Sunday’s match are as follows:
CELTIC FC Women v theRangers – City of Glasgow Women’s Cup
Excelsior Stadium – Sunday 24 July 2022
Kick-off: 2:00pm | Gates open: 1:30pm – HOME SUPPORT ONLY.
Ticket price £8. Tickets available HERE.
On the summer training camp in Gran Canaria, the Celtic FC Women manager was pleased with the trip. “It was great, we pushed very hard, we’ve done double and treble sessions daily. We did some sessions in values and the standards that we want to set as a team so I think it was very positive,” Fran said.
Celtic played a friendly against Southampton last weekend which ended in a 1-1 draw and earlier this week played another friendly against Partick Thistle winning that one 8-2. Next up is theRangers on Sunday in the Glasgow Cup.
Fran continued: “Now we have come back and we have three friendlies in a week so now it’s time to test ourselves and see where we are. I’ve got good feelings, we’ve got a bigger squad now with a lot of young players from the Academy coming to see if any of them are ready to step into the first team squad, so very positive, I am very happy with the team.
“Training is good, it’s where you learn the tactics, it’s where you get the links in-between players – where you start to establish those links – then you put into practice in the games. That’s what we want,” Fran added.
On the Glasgow Cup beginning this season for the women’s game Fran was pleased at the chance to get his hands on more silverware.
“We’ve got a summer game against the best opponent we can have at this moment in time and what an amazing test for our players, especially our young players to try to get the outcome we want from the game in terms of tactical and the load we need from the players.
“I think it’s brilliant. When I signed for Celtic I saw the trophy cabinet and I saw a Glasgow Cup from many, many years ago. It was great. Now we’re getting the women to play the Glasgow Cup. It’s only the first year, we’re finding our feet but it’s fantastic.”
On the continuing growth of the women’s game, as we’ve seen in recent weeks with the Women’s Euros being so entertaining and played in front of amazingly large crowds, Fran Alonso sees the bigger picture but also notes that his side has enjoyed an increase in supporters at games too and that is certainly something that he expects to continue to grow this season.
“It’s fantastic for the women’s game. Lat year we saw Barcelona in the champions League beating the world record crowd with 95,000. We have hunger, it’s a great product the women’s game and it’s increasing. The Euros has been amazing, record crowds but also great quality. It’s fantastic and in terms of what we’ve done here it’s the same.
“I remember the first cup that we won (League Cup Final last December) there were around 3500 people, or something like that, then the last one (Scottish Cup Final at the end of May) was almost 5000 people so it is increasing. It was an amazing atmosphere s I would like to invite every single football fan to get passionate about the men’s game and now the women’s game.
🗣”We did sessions on our values and the standards we want to set as the team, it was very positive. Now it’s time to test ourselves.”@FranAlonsoFA talks all things pre-season, @WEURO2022 and this Sunday’s game🍀🔜
📽 Watch the full interview now: https://t.co/xeHt9qtSJR
— Celtic FC Women (@CelticFCWomen) July 21, 2022
