‘I can’t wait to embrace it’ McCabe relishing Lyon tie

Arsenal left-back Katie McCabe says she is relishing Sunday’s Champions League semi-final second at the home of eight-time winners Lyon on Sunday. The Gunners lost the first leg 2-1 at the Emirates last weekend. But McCabe, who joined the club nearly 10 years ago, says her and her teammates cannot wait for the game.

It’s McCabe’s second UWCL semi-final during her time at the club and McCabe says the team is in a different place compared to an injury hit side that took on Wolfsburg in 2023. ‘It’s been nearly two years since we were in this position with the club with the Wolfsburg game. It is going to be a different challenge for us, the depth and the strength we have in the squad has been fantastic. Two years ago we were in a different place. We are feeling good and unified and really focused.’

As one of the squad’s most experienced players, McCabe knows what it takes to compete in games like this, ‘You have to have it all, you have to have grit, perseverance, courage to step up in these games. We were frustrated at times in the first leg by the fine margins and not getting over the line.

‘But we have been hard at it and looking at how we can get better in those moments, keep improving, keep getting those opportunities. I am very lucky to be surrounded by great teammates, high quality players and staff and to be so long at a club like Arsenal, I don’t take that for granted at all.

‘The feeling the fans give us, at the Emirates last week and we have travelling fans coming over on Sunday, the energy they give us, it makes me feel very privileged to pull on this shirt. Playing in the semi-finals of the Champions League I can’t wait to embrace it.’ After the first leg, Lyon boss Joe Montemurro told Arseblog News he had asked Lyon’s right winger Kadidiatou Diani to stay a little higher because he knew McCabe would be asked to commit to attack.

Arseblog News asked McCabe about striking the balance between supplementing Arsenal’s midfield and attack and not leaving too much space for a winger like Diani, ‘You have got to be so on it in terms of where your opponent is, where the ball is, where my teammates are. It is reading and feeling the spaces in those moments, of course I respect Diani and the whole Lyon team because of what they’ve achieved.

‘But we know our qualities and our strengths, especially going forward and, for me, that is one of my strengths, making forward runs, arriving into space and delivering balls into the box. We have touched on certain things during the week but I don’t want to lose that aspect of my game going forward.’

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