This is a season-defining week for the Scottish champions, Glasgow City. A 2-1 defeat by their title rivals, Hibernian, in the Scottish Women’s Cup semi-final was not the ideal start to the crunch period, which reaches its climax on Sunday with the two teams – separated by two goals only – meeting in their penultimate league outing. Hibs have won their last five knockout games against City but have not beaten them in the league for a staggering 11 years.

Now, the amateur side head to Spain for a David v Goliath style match-up with star-studded Barcelona. It is hard to overstate the task at hand and the delicate decisions their manager, Scott Booth, has to make. With a packed fixture schedule, the former Aberdeen player’s squad is being stretched.

At the extreme end the 16-year-old school student and central defender Carly Girasoli has played nine games in 28 days, including three times for Scotland’s under-19 side in their successful European Championship qualifying campaign. These are not full-time players pulling their socks up three times a week – they are, on the whole, students and workers juggling a professional level schedule with their careers.

The likely title-deciding clash between two unbeaten sides at the top of the Scottish Women’s Premier League has to be the priority but, if they cause an upset against Barcelona, they will at the very least match their best run in the Champions League, when they reached the quarter-finals in 2014-15.

The 12-time Scottish champions have not had an easy route to the last 16. City finished level on points with Anderlecht and the Polish club Gornik Leczna in qualifying Group 3, topping the group on head-to-head results. In the round of 32 they won 2-0 away to Cyprus’s confusingly named Barcelona FA after goals from the winger Hayley Lauder and the midfielder Leanne Crichton, before a nervy 1-0 home defeat ensured their passage to the last 16.

WATCH: Sam Kerr's goal five minutes from time seals Scottish champions Glasgow City a place in the last 32 of the Women's Champions League.



Read more: https://t.co/Bt2u22l0XS pic.twitter.com/SsGeHNIlWL — BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) August 14, 2018

Barcelona and Glasgow City are worlds apart. While the Liga Iberdrola runners-up have seen revitalised support from their parent club in recent years, their Scottish opponents are one of the few clubs still an independent entity.

Having played football at university, Laura Montgomery linked up with her friend Carol Anne Stewart in 1998 to co-found the side for which she would go on to appear over 250 times. Stewart remains chairperson of the club.

City have had unprecedented domestic success, with 27 trophies in a 20-year history, but they battle a problem faced by all Scottish sides – that of retaining players in an amateur league with European giants, not least those south of the border, eyeing their top talent. The Scots Lisa Evans and Emma Mitchell, starters in Arsenal’s 5-0 demolition of the Women’s Super League champions, Chelsea, on Sunday, both began their careers with the Scottish champions, as did the Chelsea defender Erin Cuthbert and the West Ham forward Jane Ross.

It means their side struggles for balance, with players poached when they are showing signs of promise, leaving the club with youngsters looking to make a breakthrough or players joining towards the end of their careers. Seven of the 20-player Champions League squad are teenagers while five are between 27 and 37.

While Glasgow head to Catalonia with heads bowed after their cup defeat Barcelona have scored 21 goals in their last four games, most recently a 9-1 hammering of Rayo Vallecano in which Alexia Putellas scored four. They have four league wins in four and sit behind the champions Atlético, who have five wins from five. With the Netherlands’ Euro 2017 star Lieke Martens, England’s Toni Duggan and Brazilian Andressa Alves – three of the club’s top scorers last season – among their recent recruits, the club were more conservative in the summer of 2018, instead promoting from the B team and signing a few more muted names from Europe.

Having finished one point behind Atleti, Barcelona are craving a first league title in four years but on top of that they want to make their mark on the continent and are likely to treat the underdogs Glasgow with the seriousness this stage of the competition merits.

Barcelona in action earlier in the competition at the Mini Estadi. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images

An away goal, a clean sheet, a narrow defeat or – dare they dream – a win to take back to Petershill Park and keep the tie competitive would give the Glasgow side huge momentum heading into their crunch league match with Hibs.

Elsewhere Chelsea will be hoping to recover from their bruising defeat by Arsenal when they host the Italian side Fiorentina while the current Champions League holders Lyon travel to Ajax. PSG visit the Swedish side Linköping FC, who are to miss out on Champions League football next year after a 1-0 defeat by Eskilstuna United ruled out any hopes the reigning domestic champions might have had of a top-two finish.

The Norwegian champions, LSK Kvinner, host Denmark’s Brøndby, Atlético Madrid – who knocked out Chelsea in the last 32 – face the 2018 runners up, Wolfsburg, and Zurich welcome Bayern Munich. On Thursday Rosengård – currently second in the Damallsvenskan – play the Czech side Slavia Praha.

Talking points

• The US and Canada confirmed their places at the Women’s World Cup in France by winning their Concacaf Championship semi-finals. A 6-0 win against Jamaica confirmed the US’s berth, with two goals each from Tobin Heath and Alex Morgan added to by Julie Ertz and Megan Rapinoe. Meanwhile Christine Sinclair scored in Canada’s 7-0 defeat of Panama to edge within eight goals of Abby Wambach’s all-time international record of 185 goals. Panama will now play Jamaica in the third place play-off with the winner also going to France, while the loser will play Argentina for the region’s final qualification spot.

Christine Sinclair is closing in on a remarkable all-time international record. Photograph: Andy Jacobsohn/AP

• Uefa has pledged a 50% increase in funding for its women’s football development programme in support of Women in Football’s #WhatIf campaign – a social media initiative challenging organisations and individuals to identify one thing that they can do improve women’s and girls’ involvement in football. Member associations will receive €150,000 a year from 2020, rising from €100,000.

• The Bristol City goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley has been named the inaugural PFA fans’ player of the month. The 21-year-old made 14 saves inside the box in City’s first three games, more than any other goalkeeper, with a 91% saves-to-shots rate. In City’s 1-0 defeat by Birmingham she saved Aoife Mannion’s spot kick before conceding an unstoppable strike from the same Blues defender in the 75th minute.

• The Netherlands, Euro 2017 winners, face Switzerland in a play-off final for a place at the Women’s World Cup next summer. The Dutch defeated Denmark while Switzerland saw off Belgium to set up the showdown. The first leg is on 9 November at Stadion Galgenwaard in Utrecht.