Everton Ladies set to embark on first UEFA Champions League campaign

Jul 28 2009 Dave Prentice

EVERTON Ladies kick-off their first UEFA Champions League campaign in Croatia on Thursday with confidence sky high – after a quartet of Blues stars and coach Mo Marley helped guide England to a first European Under-19 Championship triumph in Belarus on Saturday.

Toffees regulars Toni Duggan, Isobel Christiansen and Michelle Hinnigan were all in the England starting line-up as they overcame Sweden 2-0, while Jess Holbrook was on the bench.

Now they head for Croatia with Everton aiming to build on their last appearance in the UEFA Women’s Cup two years ago when they just missed out on the quarter- finals.

Everton meet hosts WFC Osijek, then play FC Levadia Tallinn and strong Norwegian runners-up Team Strømmen for a Round of 32 berth.

It’s a tough group of games, but the Blues can take confidence from the international exploits of their youngsters over the last couple of weeks.

“You can't get better experience going into this kind of competition,” coach Mo Marley (inset) said.

“The seniors are preparing for the European Championship finals and the Under-19s have now won theirs.