Champions Barbican are looking to book a place in their fifth straight Sherwin Williams Women’s Premier League football final, when they take a 5-0 advantage into today’s second-leg semi-finals at the Drewsland mini-stadium at 5:00 pm.

However, the first semi-final of the double-header, which begins at 3:00 pm, is still up for grabs with Waterhouse holding a one-goal advantage over Portmore Strikers after a close and exciting 4-3 victory last Saturday.

The opening match should again produce a lot of sparks with Portmore certain they can make the comeback, while Waterhouse are confident they can hold off the St Catherine side and progress to the final.

Last Saturday, Waterhouse’s coach Xavier Gilbert said he would have preferred to go into today’s game with a two-goal cushion, but pointed out that his team was a little inexperienced to give up two late goals after they led 4-1 at the break in the first-leg.

“There are a lot of things we will have to do differently to ensure that we make it to the final… because the Portmore team is very competitive and they showed that they can come back,” he said.

His counterpart Cornell Clarke is confident his team can overhaul the deficit and advance to the decider.

He declared that his team is far better than their opponents. “I know we are better than this Waterhouse team, we have more quality than they do. But the first order of business will be to get rid of the one goal deficit and then try and to take the lead,” he said.

Meanwhile, Barbican should take one step further to a fifth successive crown when they take a 5-0 cushion into their semi-final against UWI Women.

The university ladies found the champions too hot to handle last weekend, but coach Dwayne Richards said they intend to end the tournament positively.

“Last season we finished second-from-bottom, so it’s a big achievement to get where we are now and we have to see how we can recover from this deficit,” he said.

“But we have to represent the university as best as we can, so we are going to come out and give it our best shot,” he said.

Barbican’s captain and veteran playmaker, Alicia James, said it’s good going into the second-leg with such a comfortable lead, but she is still not taking anything for granted.

“We still cannot take them light, although we were five goals better than them, we need to stay focused and try get some more goals,” she said.