Fran Alonso has not wasted any time in preparing for next season as he began preparing his side for their upcoming champions League campaign the day after the Celtic Women’s team secured second place in the Scottish Women’s Premier League on the final day of the season.

The Celtic Women’s team achieved their dream of Champions League football next season after beating Motherwell 8-0 on the last day of the 2020/21 season last Sunday (June 6^th) to secure second spot.

Speaking to the Celtic View Podcast, Fran Alonso reflected on the team’s achievement and looked ahead to the new targets he has set the squad in the upcoming season.

“We have to be very proud,” said the Celtic Women’s manager on the podcast. “It’s been a very tough season with the breaks and the challenges of a very congested run of fixtures. We did very well, especially in the last 13 games after restarting following the 3-0 loss. We never lost again after that which is amazing considering the quality of opponents we faced. We have to be very proud.

“One of the dreams we had as a team now has a tick next to it. We enjoyed the last game on Sunday and then from Monday we were working towards next season. We have new dreams and we want to keep ticking boxes and achieving dreams together as a team.”

The Celtic Women’s team will play in Europe’s elite competition for the first time next season, and Fran Alonso is anticipating a difficult challenge in progressing in the tournament. The Celtic manager was relishing the challenge, though, and said he wanted to go head-to-head with Europe’s best.

“It’s going to be very challenging,” he said. “We don’t go into the champion’s pathway so we’re going to face top teams in Europe. We’ve faced adversity before and been able to compete and, on many occasions, been able to win the games.

“For the team and individual players, it’s all about constant development.

'We’re growing and developing so we want to face the toughest team we can play and see where we’re at compared to Barcelona, for example.'

I know we’re miles away from them but we want to see how we can get closer. Playing against teams like that is going to be a good learning environment for us. We won’t be scared to face any opponent. Even if we don’t get the win, it’s going to be a great learning experience for us as players and as a team.

“Hopefully we get into the group stages. We know that’s going to be very hard but there’s a great financial reward for the club if we can do it and we’d love to be there.”

You can watch Fran Alonso’s interview in full below.

Celtic View Podcast: Fran Alonso relishing Champions League challenge