Gareth Taylor: Man City 'switched on' for Hammarby test in Champions League

Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor says his side are ready for the task of facing Hammarby in the UEFA Women's Champions League (UWCL) in front of 21,000 Swedish fans.

City will be eager to bounce-back from Saturday's 2-0 loss to Chelsea in the Women's Super League (WSL), and extend their unbeaten run in the Champions League. Taylor said he has been pleased with how his side have trained this week, and all players are prepared for the clash.

“I’ve been really pleased with the reaction since Chelsea," he explained "The margins were so tight in the game and being able to train for the last couple days has been good. We’ve put our thoughts into this game and really make sure we try and finish off on a high."

City managed to get the job done over Hammarby at home last week, winning 2-0 at the Joie Stadium thanks to goals from Laura Blindkilde Brown and Aoba Fujino. The side just need a point from Thursday evening's game in order to secure their place in the competition's quarter-final stages.

"It doesn’t stop after that, of course we want to finish top of the group and win every game that we play in this competition because it’s a fantastic competition," admitted Taylor. "It’s been a while since us being there and we are really enjoying the ride at the moment. But that doesn’t change that for us it’s about winning games and going into the international break hopefully on a high.”

Despite an impressive effort against Hammarby last week, Taylor said his side's performance gave him lots to reflect on ahead of their reverse fixture on Thursday.

“They’re a big physical and strong team, which we were aware of," he said. Physically they are very aggressive in what they do, both with and without the ball. They’re quite aggressive at moments when they do come out and press, but we’ve worked really hard over the last couple of days to make sure we are set up and ready for them.”

Hammarby fans travelled to Manchester in great numbers last week, making their voices known at the Joie Stadium. 21,00 tickets have now been sold for the game at the Tele2 Arena on Thursday, something Taylor said will be a "really good" experience for his City team.

“It’s going to be a hostile atmosphere tomorrow I can imagine, which is really good," expressed Taylor. "It’s something different to probably what we’ve normally experienced. They get right behind the team, they are constantly cheering all the time. We experienced it on a smaller scale in the Joie Stadium.

"When we played the home game I felt that it was a really good experience for the girls to have. Playing against those European oppositions, they often have really fanatical support and it’s a bit of excitement. It’s always good to have noise, and I’m sure the girls prefer that than it being a really quiet atmosphere."

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