Slegers and McCabe keen to draw on Arsenal’s history of comebacks against Lyon

Arsenal travel to Lyon on Sunday seeking to overturn a 2-1 first leg deficit in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final. Arsenal have a history of comebacks in the competition this season which boss Renee Slegers and left-back Katie McCabe believe can stand the Gunners in good stead on Sunday.

Arsenal lost their first group game 5-2 but won their next five games, including a breathless 3-2 win over Bayern on matchday six to top the group. They also reversed a 2-0 first leg deficit against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. They also came back from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits to beat West Ham 4-3 in the WSL last month.

Renee Slegers believes that Arsenal can draw on that experience on Sunday, ‘You want to set yourself up so you don’t need to overcome setbacks, that is the starting point. But we also know in sports it will happen and the further you go, the better the teams you play against, this will happen. You will play against good teams and good players. So we look at what happens when we are in that situation when we need to come back, either in the 90 minutes or in a second leg.

‘The team has shown so much strength in those moments, that is key for us to be a winning team, whatever happens, we stick to it, we keep on going and we have a mindset on winning, we persist and we keep on believing in what we are doing. We talk with the players so much about these processes and I think that is why we have been able to turn these games around before. That gives us belief for the future as well.’

Katie McCabe says that the team can take belief from those examples but that the groundwork for those comebacks has been a long time in the making in training, ‘You are seeing the benefits of it now, against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, but this is something we have been conscious of for a while. To be champions and progress in Europe and be in competitions, you have to have that aspect in your game, not just individually but as a team.

‘When we’ve gone down a goal or two or had to play in different conditions away from home, you need to see that and respect it and focus on what we can control. The most recent one was the Madrid game and the pitch was what it was in the first leg, we kept it under control by bringing them back to the Emirates and playing our football and playing the Arsenal way. It obviously helps when it comes off but it is something we have worked on and been conscious of for the last year or two for sure.’

McCabe captained the team during their most recent UWCL semi-final against Wolfsburg two years ago, when an injury ravaged Arsenal side were beaten by Wolfsburg in extra-time. She says the team have learned from that game, even if the injury situation made the scenario in 2023 very different to Sunday.

‘I remember leading the girls out against Wolfsburg and we were lined up and I was looking at our bench and the row of players behind it who were out with long-term injuries, it was incredible. Kim, Caitlin, Viv, Beth, Leah Williamson, it was crazy. We had a depleted squad, people were down and out on us.

‘To be in this position now and having grown through those difficult moments and coming through, Wolfsburg beat us in the end but we have to find the positives and the learnings in those moments. I think we have grown so much over those two years and developed our game, especially how we play going forward. That is down to Renee and the coaching staff for working us so hard on the training pitch. It is exciting, we are excited as a team going into this and we want to show what we can do.’

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