THE 2020 Scottish Women’s Premier League season had barely started when, like the rest of football in Scotland, it came to a sudden halt due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Indeed, Celtic had played just one match, though it had proved to be a successful start for the Hoops as they battled reigning champions, Glasgow City, and some horrendous weather conditions, to deliver a 2-1 win which came courtesy of a last-gasp winner from captain, Kelly Clark.

Now, nearly eight months on from that impressive victory in February, the Celtic Women’s team are gearing up for the resumption of competitive football, which kicks off with a game against Glasgow City this Sunday, October 18.

Not surprisingly, manager Fran Alonso and his squad are excited about getting back out on to the pitch, and while they know it will a tough test against the 13-in-a-row champions, they also go into the game with the knowledge that they have beaten Glasgow City in their last two meetings.

Ahead of the game, the Hoops boss and his American forward, Summer Green, spoke to the press about Sunday’s game, which will be screened live on BBC Alba.

“For professional players, unless they’ve suffered a long-term injury, they’d never stop competing for seven months, so that was very, very hard,” said Fran Alonso. “So now, we’re trying to get back and we’ve been preparing over the past five weeks for our first game on Sunday. We’re just glad that we can do what we love and we’re very excited about the game.

“Until we, or somebody else, proves something different, then Glasgow City are the favourites, the best team in the country and have been for the last 13 years, and we have to respect that.

“We’ve beaten beat them the last two times we played them, so we're not scared. We respect them and we will approach the game like we did back in February. In that game, the score was 1-1 but we weren’t happy about that and we kept pushing for the winning goal. That is our mentality.

“Obviously there are many factors in football. There are things we can control and things that we can’t control – we will try to control what we can but we know that we’re playing against top opposition.

“In my eyes, they are the favourites, we are the underdogs but we are very good underdogs, so we’re excited about the game. All we care about are the three points on Sunday and we don’t want to focus on anything else at the moment.

“We’ve got a slightly bigger squad so it’s more challenging for me to keep everyone happy in picking the team every week – it’s almost impossible – but the mentality of the girls is superb. They understand that the team is more important than the individual.

“Everyone has bought into this culture, and although it is a challenging season, we are excited, and ready to put into practice what we’ve been working on in training every day.”

Similar to the men’s game, all matches in the Scottish Women’s Premier League will be played behind closed doors.

But you can watch Celtic take on Glasgow City this Sunday, October 18 LIVE on BBC Alba. The game, at Broadwood Stadium, kicks off at 4.10pm.

Celtic FC Women all set for season opener against Glasgow City