Barring the kind of miracle that would have the Vatican come calling, it is highly unlikely that Glasgow City will overhaul a 4-0 first-leg defeat to Brann in the second round of the UEFA Champions League.
City, with a significant European pedigree having twice made it to the quarter-finals of the tournament, had designs on becoming the first Scottish side to make it into the restructured group stages of the competition, an arrangement that mirrors the formation of how the male Champions League plays out.
Wednesday night’s tie, however, was a stark reminder of the alacrity with which the women’s game has grown across recent years and shone a light under just how pedestrian, by contrast, the development has been on these shores.
Brann, the current Norwegian champions, have had a fairly indifferent season so far and lie fourth in a domestic league that was 22 games deep by the time they headed to Glasgow.
City, the last independent team to make it to the quarter-final stage of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, found themselves trailing by two goals after just 13 minutes. There could have been more in a whirlwind opening period where Brann ran roughshod over the Petershill side.
There was more cohesion to City in the second period but by then the damage was long done. The late fourth killed the tie off and there was a familiar refrain in the aftermath of the game as Leanne Ross, the City manager, identified the challenges that her side face in a domestic context aren’t sufficient to prepare them for what unfolds on a European stage.
“That level is difficult to replicate week in, week out,” she said. “We obviously can’t prepare for that game as well as we can because, with the greatest of respect to the league, no-one performs to the level that we faced on Wednesday night.
“It is a step up. I think the teams in the league, us included, needed to keep trying to raise the standard and the profile so that we can improve, evolve and be more capable of competing at this kind of level.”
In a league where there are teams who are still trying to juggle work commitments around playing football, it is difficult to envisage how to mould teams capable of making inroads into modern Champions League territory.
When City last did so three years ago the landscape of this competition was different.
When the top league in the country is still part-time and still struggling to attract investment to fund infrastructure it is unrealistic to expect teams to be equipped to go forth and compete in a global game that is faster, more athletic and more professional than at any other point in its history.
UEFA have made a lot of noise about the increasing investment in the Champions League but it was interesting to note this week that even if City had progressed, it would have been unlikely to have had an overly significant impact on their resources.
The £100,000 fee per group stage game is a vast improvement from the £20k it was but when overheads are factored in for air travel, hotels and stadium usage, the best outcome for City would have been to more or less break even.
What the competition does do for those who make it into the group stages is offer a vehicle to generate more money - with some of that trickling into the league as a whole - but for the game to thrive there needs to be access to the kind of funds that are significantly more transformative.
The eye-watering £60m that the group stages of the men’s Champions League will offer next season to every participant as a new structure takes root is a set-up created essentially to appease the giants of the game who have threatened to set up a European super league.
By sharing some of those riches it could vastly enhance the hand of the women’s competition.
In terms of the here and now, the challenge has to be for the Scottish league to find a means to offer a league structure that offers the opportunity of full-time football across the board.
Anything else risks the league becoming little more than a backwater as the game moves in without it.
AND ANOTHER THING
This summer there was a captive audience in Australia as The Matildas captured the attention of the country.
Across a World Cup that was billed as the most successful women’s tournament to date, 1,978,274 fans paid to watched 64 games , an improvement of more than half a million on the previous record.
Australia’s semi-final defeat to England was the most watched programme on Aussie television but Ange Postecoglou was scathing when questioned on any legacy the tournament will leave.
“When you look at what the Matildas did at the World Cup; unbelievable,” he said. “But you still won’t see an influx of resources to the game. You won’t. I guarantee it. “I just don’t think the nation as a whole has that inside them to understand you can make an impact on the world of football, but it requires a kind of nationalistic approach that I just don’t think Australians at their core are really interested in.”
Postecoglou, who butted heads with the Australian FA, should know.
AND FINALLY
Rangers host Hibs this afternoon at Ibrox as they make the most of the men’s international break.
Tickets for the game - £7 for adults and £3 for concessions remain on sale for the 1pm kick-off - and it will be interesting to see if the kind of numbers that were generated at the finale of last term are sustained in any real sense.
