A Real Eye-Opener

It’s match day five in the Women’s Champions League, and the bad news is that Celtic are already out.

With four games played, Celtic have lost all four games and are nine points behind today’s opponents, Real Madrid. Celtic can still avoid finishing bottom if they can overhaul FC Twente who are three points ahead of them, but that will depend on what happens tonight before the two teams meet in the Netherlands on match day six. If FC Twente get a better result away to Chelsea than Celtic get at home to Real Madrid, then Celtic will finish bottom regardless of what happens next time out.

The bad news is that Real Madrid still have a chance to overhaul group leaders Chelsea. To do so, they need to win today and give themselves a chance against Chelsea in the final game. And given Real Madrid won 4-0 when they faced Celtic on match day two, they’ll be favourites to do that even if this game is being played in Hamilton.

That defeat to Real Madrid came after the opening match day defeat, 2-0 at home to Twente.

I said at the time it was probably Celtic’s best chance of picking up points in this group, and I unfortunately stand by that. There is now a very good chance that Celtic are going to get grannied in this group.

Well, at least they have that goal, scored by Murphy Agnew at Celtic Park in the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea on match day three.

Last time out, at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea ran out 3-0 winners. That result confirmed Chelsea’s place in the knockout stages. But as I said, they’re still battling with Real Madrid for top spot.

Real Madrid’s opening game was a 3-2 defeat away to Chelsea.

They put seven past Twente without reply at home on match day three.

But it was a far narrower 3-2 win when they went to the Netherlands on match day four. Perhaps Celtic can take some inspiration from that result, knowing that Real Madrid might not travel as well as they play at home.

The Champions League will have been a good experience for Celtic, but it does highlight one of the many gulfs in the women’s game. Not that the men’s game doesn’t have gulfs too – I mean the Celtic women haven’t lost heavily in any of their four games so far, certainly not anything like the Celtic men have done in their competition!

But you only have to look at the weekend’s results to see another gulf. Celtic won 13-0 away against Glasgow Girls and Women in the Scottish Cup on Sunday.

At the same time, Rangers were winning 24-1 against Westdyke. There’s been five games in the SWPL this season where teams have hit double figures in terms of goals, and you wouldn’t be surprised if there were more before the season is done.

It’s worth noting that the early years of the men’s game wasn’t devoid of these kinds of results, particularly in cup games. We all know the Arbroath 36-0 story from 1885 after all! However, there’s only ever been seven top flight league match that were won by double figures, with the biggest victory being Celtic beating Dundee 11-0 in 1895/96. Indeed, teams in the top flight have only hit double figures at all fifteen times since the league inception in 1890/91, and it hasn’t happened since Rangers put ten past Raith Rovers in 1967/68.

But there’s two things at play here. First, the women’s game appears to be still trying to find the right balance. Bringing the bigger teams in later in cup competitions so as to reduce these big scorelines as the men’s game did, but also actually given the smaller teams a chance to test themselves. Yes, Rangers scored 24 goals at the weekend, but Westdyke are loving the one they scored!

But just like the early days of the men’s game, there’s a move towards professionalism in the women’s game. And that move is all the more stark when you consider the money that is in football these days compared with back then. A lot of these women’s teams that are making that move are able to tap into the money in the already established men’s teams. That’s why we’ve seen the emergence of Celtic and Rangers in a realm where Glasgow City and Hibernian had previously been the biggest names.

But Scottish football is also somewhat behind other established countries. I’m not going to get into the international woes here – especially given Caroline Weir will likely feature tonight for Real Madrid so it’s not like the best Scottish women aren’t playing at decent levels – but there’s definitely issues for us to resolve there if the game is to really grow.

But look at Celtic’s opponents in this group. The WSL in England is thriving and their teams are challenging at the highest level, La Liga in Spain likewise with Barcelona the holders of this tournament in the last two seasons, their third title in the last four. Even the Eredivisie in the Netherlands doesn’t seem to have the same eye watering goal differences, the gaps aren’t the same between the top and bottom teams there.

Again, as much as Scottish football in the men’s game is lagging behind the big leagues with the big tv money, and even the similar sized leagues in similar sized countries, the women’s game seems to have the same issues magnified further.

And so, the Celtic women and the Celtic men seem to have the same issue. Difficult to compete at the top European level, but ahead of so many domestically. Where the SWPL will be in the coming years, only time will tell. But will anyone really be surprised if it ends up being Celtic and Rangers dominating it like they do in the men’s game? From a competition perspective, we can only hope not.

But getting back to the current picture in the SWPL, Celtic are currently fourth in the table, five points behind leaders Glasgow City, four points behind second place Rangers, a point behind third place Hearts, and two points ahead of fifth place Hibernian. That will probably change further as most of the league are in action both tonight (apart from Queen’s Park) and on Sunday (apart from Aberdeen) and Celtic won’t play those two matches until January. Therefore Celtic’s next match after tonight will be the final Champions League game away to FC Twente.

Real Madrid beat Sevilla 4-1 on Saturday. They are currently second in the Primera Division, eleven points behind leaders Barcelona with two games in hand. Unlike Celtic, they do play this coming weekend, visiting Deportivo on Saturday before they host Chelsea next week.

Good luck to Celtic tonight!