Shelbourne ready for second crack at Champions League

After last year's maiden voyage in Champions League waters, Shelbourne are eagerly looking forward to testing themselves again in Europe when they take on Glasgow City in Lithuania on Wednesday morning (kick-off 10am).

The carrot for Noel King’s side is that should they defeat the current Scottish league champions, they would face the winners of FC Gintra of Lithuania or Cardiff City (Wales) in the same venue.

Last year, Heather O’Reilly’s early goal secured a famous 1-0 win against Slovenian side ZNK Pomurje before Icelandic side Valur ended dreams of making it through to the group stages.

Shels face a difficult task to go further than last year, yet captain Pearl Slattery is embracing the challenge.

"Personally, I’ve always wanted to play a team from Scotland. I’m excited to see how we level up to them," she told RTÉ Sport.

"We know we can give them a good game if we’re all fit and healthy. We had a brilliant experience in Slovenia last year and I think represented the league really well and we aim to do that again. A lot of the girls would have been experiencing Champions League football for the first time last year, now it’s our second go at it, I think it will be massive for us."

Slattery believes the squad has now has the perfect balance of youth and experience and is eager to play European football.

Christie Gray, a Candian native who joined Shels before the start of the season, echoes her captain’s sentiments.

"Champions League is one of those things that I think when you’re little you dream about, you see on TV, and you don’t necessarily think it’s within reach. I’m beyond excited, what an opportunity to represent the club and Ireland, as a country, on one of the world’s biggest stages for women’s football."

The Shels