Chris Llewellyn proud of "awesome" effort from Swansea City Ladies

Head coach Chris Llewellyn was full of pride and praise for Swansea City Ladies after they took CSKA Moscow to extra time in their Champions League clash, before ultimately suffering defeat in Limassol.

Towards the end of a hard-fought contest Nevena Damjanovic looked to have nicked it for the Russian side the dying moments, but a wonder strike from Chloe Chivers levelled the scores in stoppage time and ensured an additional 30 minutes would be needed to separate the sides.

The Swans continued to put in a gutsy performance against the Russian champions but CSKA found what was required to win and advance to the group final.

But Llewellyn was in no doubt that the result wasn’t a fair reflection of the performance that Swansea - an amateur side - put in against professional opposition.

“A 4-1 result after 120 minutes doesn’t do the girls justice. For 90 minutes they applied themselves and done everything the coaching staff asked of them,” he said.

“To go one goal down that late on and to be able to pull one back, just shows what the girls are all about.

“They are a full-time outfit, so the fitness was probably on their side, but we went toe-to-toe with a very good side, and we were unlucky to lose the game.

“The performance was testament to what they have done over the last few years, not just the girls, but the club in general.

“They are trying to push boundaries and put things in place for the future, and performances like this should only make people stand up and take notice.

“The players, coaching staff and everybody involved with the team should be proud of what they have achieved.

“Everybody in Wales should be proud because anyone who watched that game, especially for the first 90 minutes, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between who was the amateur and who the professional outfit.

“On another day we could have won the game and the girls were awesome.”