Manchester City Women have it all to do in the return leg of their Champions League qualifying tie against Real Madrid after conceding an injury-time equaliser in the Spanish capital on Tuesday night.
Gareth Taylor’s side took the lead through Caroline Weir two minutes into the second half but rode their luck at times – Real missed a penalty and hit the crossbar – until Kenti Robles struck in the 92nd minute.
The winner of the tie will secure a place in the inaugural women’s Champions League group stage and Taylor is confident City can improve ahead of next week’s return leg in Manchester.
“I’m a bit disappointed with losing the goal that late on but it’s a tough fixture, especially where we were in our pre-season,” he told City’s official website. “I thought we controlled the game for the first 20 minutes but then caused a few errors that let them back in slightly.
“In the second half we improved a lot after tweaking a couple of positions but I’d have to say a draw’s a fair result with the chances. If we came away with 1-0 we wouldn’t have kidded ourselves, there was still work to do. We’ll get better and improve, it’s early on for us in where we are in our fitness.”
Taylor was missing several key players through injury, including Ellie Roebuck, Lucy Bronze and Ellen White but was able to hand competitive debuts to Vicky Losada, Khadija Shaw and, as a substitute, Hayley Raso.
