Renee Slegers reacts to 4-1 victory over Lyon

Arsenal qualified for the Champions League final with an outstanding 4-1 win over Lyon on Sunday evening. Goals from Frida Maanum, Mariona, Alessia Russo and Caitlin Foord gave the Gunners a 4-0 lead. Dumornay got one back for Lyon. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first three questions are from Arseblog News.

On how proud she is of the performance…
Super proud, we talked about the Arsenal way and what it looks like and why it’s important for us, this is the football we believe in and it is hard to deliver every single day and in every single game. But the total picture of what we do today against top opposition in a high pressure moment, I think it is unbelievable from the players. The biggest key for us was how calm we were in all phases of the game. The effort put into this game from the whole team, I am delighted for everyone who was a part of this. We really look forward to the final, but also straight away when it’s euphoria on the pitch because it’s such a special moment but after a few minutes, Aston Villa is the next one and we want to perform in that one. We are so happy and we need to celebrate these special moments and we do, but we are also very humble and we need to get ready for the next one.

On Arsenal’s quality on the ball…
We know how important it is to be good on the ball and the players pride themselves on it and as soon as we got back to training, they communicated that they wanted to be better, it is such a key value for us to take care of the ball. We manipulated space so well and we were so clear in our decision making and recognising where spaces are and making the right decision on the ball so many times. It is really hard to do, it was really strong and impressive of the players.

On Kim Little’s performance…
It was such a special moment for Kim, if you see her and she has been part of the club for so long and you see how she invests and works, it is the player that all the players see it and feel it. Leah Williamson said in the huddle afterwards, this is so special if you look at Kim going to the final of the Champions League with her. If you look at the way she performs, it is incredible and a very special moment.

On the timing of the second and third goals…
What we said is that we don’t want to waste any minute on the pitch, we want to come out and play our game from the first moment because we know exactly what we want to do and what we need to do. I think that is what we did, we get the early goal which is good for us but it also forces a new question for Lyon because it changes the scenario for them, what are they going to do now when we score so early? We had a clear strategy because you can’t plan when you score goals but we had a clear strategy for what we wanted to do after goals were scored.

On how quickly Renee has turned the team around in a short space of time…
I don’t think about it in that way, I am so proud of the whole team, I am so happy we achieved this. It is a team performance and I don’t take myself out of what the team is doing, I am on the team. This is the big games and the final stages, but there was so much work we had to do before, we had to qualify for early in the season but all the work the club has done over many years to get us into this position as an organisation to be able to compete on this level.

On whether the players were inspired by the 5-1 victory here two seasons ago…
There are still a lot of players from that game that are still part of the squad, important players who wanted to watch that game back for their own individual preparation but we never addressed it as a team because we talk about the here and now in our processes.

On whether she was surprised by Lyon selecting Hegerberg upfront with Dumornay deeper…
We know they have a great squad of players and we prepared every scenario for all phases, including setpieces. Was I expecting it? It is hard to say, I think she came on and was important in the first leg, so it is a scenario we spoke about. But it is hard to go into the minds of the other camp and understand the game plan they are planning for but it is one of the scenarios we spoke about.

14.van Domselaar; 2.Fox, 6.Williamson, 7.Catley, 11.McCabe (62.Reid ‘90+1); 10.Little(c), 8.Mariona (32.Cooney-Cross ‘86); 18.Kelly (9.Mead ‘71), 12.L.Maanum (3.Wubben-Moy ‘86), 19.Foord; 23.Russo (25.Blackstenius ‘71)

Unused: 1.Zinsberger, 13.Walti, 16.Kafaji, 21.Pelova, 22.Nighswonger, 28.Ilestedt, 40.Williams.

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