LEANNE ROSS has been involved in all of Glasgow City's Champions League adventures and her experience makes her believe Chelsea can be beaten in the last 32 at the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie tomorrow night.
The English champions lead 1-0 from last Thursday's first leg at Staines, but their advantage is not big as many expected.
Captain Ross, who is 34 and has 116 Scotland caps, puts that down to head coach Scott Booth's meticulous preparation for the two games, and sees no reason why her side can't reach the last 16.
This attitude is in contrast to that of seven months ago when City's players showed little self-belief in their quarter final games against Paris Saint-Germain. This was apparent even in the early stages of the home tie, which was lost 2-0, and even more so in the second leg at the Parc des Princes when City shipped five more goals in front of nearly 12,000 boisterous French fans.
"Being perfectly honest, Chelsea don't compare to PSG at all," Ross said. "PSG are the best team I have played against.
"They have internationalists all over the team and also on the bench. It's a scary prospect when you're 3-0 down and you see a German or French international coming on as a sub. You just think, 'This isn't going to get any better'.
"Yes, Chelsea caused us problems in the first leg, but the fact we were able to execute our game plan in Staines shows we were in it far more than we were against PSG."
A better comparison for the challenge facing the Scottish champions is their double-header against another English club, Arsenal, in the last 16 two years ago. Then, they lost 3-0 in London, giving themselves a near-impossible task for the home game at a sold-out Petershill Park.
"Chelsea and Arsenal are quite similar in style," Ross said. "They both have dangerous players going forward. The difference this time is that we are still in the tie, which wasn't really the position when we came back to Scotland after the first Arsenal game."
City lost the home game 3-2, but with everything to play for this time a much tighter second leg is on the cards. Ross's side need to stop Chelsea scoring an away goal, while finding a way to at least take the game into extra time.
"If we get a goal it puts the tie back on level terms but we still have to ensure we stay solid and try to prevent them from having opportunities," she said. "Obviously if they get the away goal it makes it a whole different scenario for us.
"We've always been confident about these two games. The fact we've been preparing for them for so long, and then trying to execute things in the league and the Scottish Cup, has been a positive for the players.
"There were no surprises for us in the first leg because we were so well prepared."
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