Written by FAI.ie

Irish Soccer Club St. Francis FC will play Rossiyanka (Russia), Maccabi Holon (Israel) and Apollon Limassol (Cyprus) in UEFA Women's Champions League in Cyprus in 30th July - August 4th

Women’s senior cup champions, St. Francis FC have been drawn against Rossiyanka (Russia), Maccabi Holon (Israel) and Apollon Limassol (Cyprus) in group A6 in the first round of the UEFA Champions League which will be held in Cyprus from the 30th July – August 4th.

St. Francis qualified for the Champions League, 1st phase after defeating local rivals, Peamount 2-1 in the 2008 FAI Umbro Women’s Cup and they continued their incredible unbeaten run in the national cup and will now contest the 2009 final before they fly out to Cyprus to take part in the UEFA Champions League.

The mini-tournament winners will progress to join the 25 other entrants, including current champions, FCR 2001 Duisburg, in the knockout phase of the competition.

St. Francis FC manager, Paddy Heffernan expressed his delight at the draw which made by UEFA President, Michel Platini in Nyon today, “This is a very exciting time for everybody involved in the club and the local community. I believe that this team are well capable of competing at the very highest level and we will give it our all to become the very first Irish side to advance to the second round of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Preparation for this tournament has been on-going since our FAI Cup final victory against Peamount last November and the girls have been working hard in the gym and on the field ever since.”

“The Russian side will obviously be our main threat if we are to progress from this group and after speaking to some of our international players who have played against Russian opposition, it is obvious that we are in for a tough physical battle against the Russians. I am incredibly happy with the draw as we have avoided, in my opinion, the strongest teams such as Brondby and Bayern Munich. We are in a very strong position to challenge in this group and our warm-up to the Champions League is the FAI Umbro Women’s Cup final against either St. Catherine’s or the Cork women’s League. It takes a good team to make it to a national final but I believe it takes a special one to contest two major finals in a row,” he added.

Group A6
WFC Rossiyanka (RUS)
Maccabi Holon FC (ISR)
Saint Francis FC (IRL)
Apollon Limassol (CYP)

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