Birmingham to keep it tight against Tyresö

A new UEFA Women's Champions League finalist is assured as Birmingham City LFC and Tyresö FF meet over two legs for a place in Lisbon, starting with a likely sell-out opener at the Blues' new Solihull home on Saturday.

Birmingham's first European campaign last season ended in the round of 32 but six straight wins, including home and away quarter-final defeats of Arsenal LFC, have earned a tie with the Swedish debutants. However, while Tyresö's squad boasts Brazil's Marta – an injury doubt – several United States players and established internationals from Spain, the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark, as well as top Sweden stars, all but three of Birmingham's squad hail from the English Midlands. Against the Gunners their back four had an average age of 20.

"They are a world-class team with world-class players," Birmingham manager David Parker told UEFA.com. "They are going to pose a massive threat to us over the two legs and we will have to be at the races just to compete with them. Hopefully if our girls do that and limit their individual quality then it will give us a good chance."

The Blues have now had two competitive games at Damson Park over the last week, beating Doncaster Rovers Belles LFC 3-1 to reach the FA Women's Cup quarter-finals on Sunday then three days later drawing their league opener 0-0 with Everton LFC. "The performances haven't been the best and I suppose in the back of everyone's mind is the semi-final on Saturday," Parker admitted.

Still just one goal conceded in four games, including the Arsenal ties, does give Birmingham hope. "It's always a great base, especially in Europe," Parker said. "So trying to keep it tight like we did at St Andrew's against Arsenal will be our aim. Tyresö will know that, an away goal for them could give them a great advantage going into the second leg. We will depend on our defence, which is young, and try to build from that by nicking a goal. We have got the players capable of doing them and everything in our armoury to go and do it."

While Tyresö's European debut has been spectacular, knocking out Paris Saint-Germain and Fortuna Hjørring before an 8-1 aggregate dismissal of SV Neulengbach, it has been a troubled winter for the club with a financial crisis that means most their key players will leave in June, not to mention injury problems that kept Marta (strained hamstring), Caroline Seger (strained calf), Verónica Boquete (sore leg), Meghan Klingenberg (sore rib) and Lisa Klinga (possible wrist fracture) out of last Sunday's league opening 2-0 loss at Kristianstads DFF. Tyresö hope to have all but Klinga back on Saturday though after training on Friday, Marta remained a doubt to start.

Coach Tony Gustavsson said: "The medical team have had a couple of really sweaty weeks, trying to get the injured players ready for action as soon as possible. We have had most of our players away on national team duties between Neulengbach and now."