THE standard of opposition may be higher, but so to is the level of aspiration for Glasgow City.

Little over six months on from a date in Paris that is the pinnacle of achievement for a club heavily laden with success, the journey to not only go that far again but beyond it begins tonight in the outskirts of London in the suburb of Staines.

Away from the bright lights of the Parc des Princes, the venue City walked out into in their Champions League quarter-final with PSG, their last 32 tie of this season’s competition is a fresh, but albeit far from straight forward, opportunity to make their mark in Europe.

English champions Chelsea are the opposition this time in what is one of the most difficult ties Glasgow could have asked for at this stage of the competition. Littered with internationalists, buoyed by confidence earned through a domestic double, the London full-timers pose a real threat to the Scottish cracks' target of going one step further in this year’s competition.

That is not a deterrent for Scott Booth, the club’s manager, though, merely just a challenge.

“Chelsea have just won a tough league and they deserved to,” he said. “They want to be involved in the Champions League and will be looking at themselves for this tournament.

“We are looking to better what we did last year. To do that will be a real challenge because we have picked up Chelsea in the first game, but that doesn’t mean we are negative about it. We are loving the challenge and we believe we can get ourselves through.

“We know the game down there will be totally different against better opposition.

“We are aware of Chelsea and what they will bring but we will be ready for them.

“I don’t expect any complacency from them, they are really professional full of experienced star players.

“They will make it difficult but we know in the tournament that is the way it’s going to be.”

While Glasgow’s ninth SWPL title in a row is not quite in the bag – City are six points clear with two games to play – Sunday’s 2-0 win over nearest rivals Hibernian has allowed the entire focus of Booth’s squad to fall on tonight’s match.

It signals a crucial period for the Scottish champions with the end of the season in sight, a Scottish Cup semi-final with Rangers and of course this two-legged encounter against Chelsea.

One game down, it’s now time to turn to objective No.2.

Booth said: “We were really happy with the result at the weekend. We still feel we can play better and that seems to be par for the course at the moment. We are still winning games but we know that we can improve.”

The Glasgow manager added: “We have known for some time that the next two or three weeks would be the cutting edge part of the season. The players have been ready for that.

“Before the game on Sunday it was a case of ticking off boxes, the Hibs game being the first one to almost secure us the title.

“Our attention now turns to Chelsea and in some way we can go in on a positive note.”