Sadiku Aims for Celtic’s Return to Champions League Competition

Celtic’s head coach, Elena Sadiku, has pledged to lead the team back to the group stages of the Women’s Champions League, asserting that her squad will “compete better” in any future appearances compared to their initial campaign. During their inaugural group stage campaign, the Scottish champions experienced six defeats and managed to score only one goal. Nevertheless, Sadiku, who at 31 is the youngest coach ever in either the men’s or women’s Champions League, expressed her belief that her team developed over the course of the competition. The campaign commenced 10 weeks prior with a 2-0 home loss to Twente and concluded with a defeat by an additional goal against the same Dutch champions in Enschede. Sadiku stated to CelticTV, external: “First half, we tried to put pressure on them and I said to the girls, ‘let’s go all in’.” She added, “I think our lesson learned for when we come back, we now need to now compare to the Champions League if we really want to compete at this level.” Although Sadiku, a Swede, has not yet marked one year in her current role, she has already achieved several milestones. Celtic’s initial SWPL title victory in May secured their place in the champions qualifying pathway for Europe’s premier competition, a path they successfully navigated for the first time to advance to the group stages. Following the draw, which placed Women’s Super League winners Chelsea, Spanish giants Real Madrid, and Dutch champions Twente alongside the Glasgow club, Celtic confronted a formidable challenge in the competition. Although the Scottish team encountered some difficulties in away matches, they only conceded more than three goals on a single occasion – during the 4-0 loss in Madrid, where three of those goals were scored in the last 20 minutes. During significant portions of that game at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano and across the entire campaign, they demonstrated their ability to challenge and threaten some of Europe’s top teams. However, narrow margins, primarily attributed to fatigue and lapses in concentration, proved detrimental, a pattern that recurred in the match against Twente. For the first goal scored by the hosts, Celtic did not react quickly enough to clear a cutback, and the subsequent two unfortunate own goals resulted from moments of inattention. Nevertheless, Sadiku maintains that the experience of competing and understanding the requirements to perform effectively at this level will benefit them in future competitions. She stated, “We have the knowledge now of what it takes to compete in the Champions League at the back of our minds.” She continued, “That needs to be the hunger and motivation every time we train and play. We want to keep getting even better so the next time we play in the Champions League we will compete better.” To achieve this, Celtic must successfully defend their SWPL title, to which their complete attention will now shift. The current champions are preparing for their last match of the year against Spartans on Sunday (13:00 GMT), currently occupying fifth place and trailing leaders Glasgow City by nine points, though they possess two games in hand. Following last week’s defeat by Real Madrid, Sadiku expressed that she “can’t wait” to redirect her full attention to domestic responsibilities, anticipating that this season’s European experience will further motivate her team to defend their title. She further added, “In the new year when we come back to normal weeks of training, it’s all about working hard and training with high intensity because we need to be prepared to dominate in the league. We’re strong and we need to believe in it as well because I want to be more successful with this team. I want to win everything that we can win and that has to be the motivation.”