Glasgow City 1 AS Roma 3 - Eileen Gleeson rues costly errors as City endure sobering night against Italians

Glasgow City’s UEFA Women’s Champions League ambitions were crushed at the first hurdle after suffering a 3-1 defeat to impressive debutants Roma in the opening qualifying round.

Two goals from Benedetta Glionna either side of an own goal had the slick Serie A outfit in control before Paloma Lazaro’s capitalised on a defensive mix up to ensure the Italians advance to Sunday’s final against Paris FC, who beat Servette in the other qualifying round tie.

It now leaves City with a meaningless match against the Swiss side to decide who finishes third and fourth in the mini four-team pool - with neither side progressing into round two.

Head coach Eileen Gleeson had few complaints about the end result as her side struggled to impose themselves throughout the contest, but was proud of the way they stuck to their task.

She said: “It’s a disappointing result but I couldn’t ask any more from the girls. We knew Roma would be a quality side, we knew they would have more of the ball than us and that their movement was really good.

“We set up to try and minimise that and for parts of the game we went toe-to-toe with them. We stayed in the game for as long as we could and on another night if we limit the mistakes then we’re still in it at the end.

“It comes down to fine margins in European football. We know we can compete but we’re still testing ourselves against different levels of quality.

“We have a lot of new players in at the club, their arrivals have been staggered due to processing visa applications but it is what it is. We can’t use that as an excuse.

“We made a couple of mistakes that we feel we could’ve done better with in terms of the goals that they scored but we created a few chances and the girls showed their heart tonight.”

A large crowd of just under 800, including a small contingent of Roma supporters descended on Petershill Park as the heavy rain subsided just in time for kick-off.

Home fans were almost celebrating an early goal after just two minutes when captain Hayley Lauder’s cross from the right glanced off the bar without any intervention before spinning behind for a goal kick.

However, the Italians began to assert their superiority and they opened the scoring with their first chance of the match when Benedetta Glionna skipped past two City defenders but racing into the post and rifling a powerful effort past Gibson, who despite getting a hand to the ball, was unable to keep it out.

That early warning sign had the hosts on the back foot but they drew themselves level against the run of play after 20 minutes. A quick counter-attack from a Roma corner saw Clare Shine feed a pass through for Lauder on the left and her looping cross towards the on-rushing Shine was turned into her own net by full-back Moeka Minami.

Roma looked to hit back immediately as play raged from end to end in an entertaining first-half with Scotland international Gibson producing a number of important saves to deny Giugliano, Glionna, Giacinti and Haavi who thundered an effort off the woodwork.

City continued to soak up the pressure but they did carve out a good opportunity to take a shock lead on the stroke of half time when Lauder’s free-kick wasn’t cleared properly with the ball breaking to Meikayala Moore in the box but the defender lifted her shot narrowly over the bar.

The visitors started the second half in the ascendency and they regained the lead after 58 minutes when Lazaro slipped the ball through for the lively Glionna in space on the right-hand side of the box and she drilled a low effort across Gibson into the far corner of the net.

Moments later, it was almost three when Jenna Clark’s weak header fell to Giugliano but Gibson pulled off another big stop to turn it round the post.

Lauren Davidson had City’s best chance of a largely one-sided second half. The winger drove forwards before cutting inside and curling a shot straight at Cameila Ceasar who parried the ball into the path of Priscilla Chinchilla but the Costa Rica international volleyed high over the bar.

A calamatious breakdown in communication between Gibson and Clark presented Roma with a golden opportuinity to kill the tie with nine minutes remaining and they capitalised with Glionna nipping in before squaring the ball across for substitute Paloma Lazaro to slot home into the bottom corner.

Glasgow City: Gibson, Muir (Chinchilla; 45), Lauder, Walsh, Fulton, Monsivais (Whelan; 84), Shine (Kozak; 80), Clark, Davidson, Moore, Greening

Unused: Clachers (GK), Easdon (GK), Bora, Grant, Gibb, Perea, Foley, Noble

AS Roma: Ceasar, Minami, De Guglielmo, Alves (Cinotti 86), Giacinti (Lazaro; 45), Giugliano, Haavi (Serturini; 66), Bartoli, Glionna (Haug; 86), Greggi, Linari

Unused: Ohrstrom (GK), Lind (GK), Kajzba, Wenninger, Ferrara, Bergersen, Kollmats, Zannini

Referee: Ainara Acevedo (Spain)

Attendance: 784

GlasgowWorld Player of the Match: Benedetta Glionna (AS Roma)