Arsenal were [3-1 winners over Valarenga](https://arseblog.news/2024/12/report-valerenga-damer-1-3-arsenal-inc-goals/) in Oslo on Thursday evening with a brace from Alessia Russo and a goal from Frida Maanum, Valarenga grabbed a late consolation. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first five questions are from Arseblog News.
**On rotating the team…**
I’m very happy with that. I think different phases of the season need different things.
And like last week, we needed consistency and we were doing really well with that. But now different things are being asked of us and games very tightly coming after each other, but also the opposition that we’re playing against today and what kind of players do we need on the pitch. So I think all by all the decisions we made and the players prepping themselves so well to be able to perform like this together, because like you say, there’s new partnerships on the pitch.
I think the way the players have invested in their preparation is on a very high level, so I’m happy with that.
**On the journey since the first Valarenga game…**
I felt at least for 80 minutes, this was actually a better performance than that first one, more dominant. I always think if you compare two games, they are separate still, because it also has to do with what the opposition comes with, what they bring, the circumstances, everything. So I think it’s hard to compare, but obviously I’m really happy with the process we’re in and how we’ve been developing.
I think today all phases of the game we deal with really well. I think obviously the last 10, 15, we lose some structure and dominance and we have to defend our goal a little bit more. But I think overall, the first 75 minutes, we do really well in all phases of the game.
**On Russo’s finishing…**
I think it’s more a symptom of confidence. But what we work with is to try to be unpredictable and finish from different attacks. And I think that’s one of the parts I’m happy with today. We attack from wide areas. We have some central combinations.
We have fast attacks, but then we also have those crosses and shots from that middle between central and wide. So I’m really happy with the variety we’re putting ourselves or setting ourselves up to.
**On giving Katie Reid her first Arsenal start…**
She is a centre-back, but she’s been coming on for us a couple of times in the right-back position. She trains on the right-back position for us as well. And over time, when we see her in our training environment, we think she does really well. The qualities we wanted on the pitch today was physicality, speed as well in the back line.
And the way we build, we’re often three in the build. And that’s where Katie came down in the kind of centre-back position. So I think the plan we had for the right-back position today fitted Katie really well.
And we trusted her to do it for us.
**On the artificial pitch …**
We trained here yesterday, and the girls had a really good session. So they got used to the artificial grass. We played Hacken away this season as well. So we’ve done it a couple of times pre-season as well. And I think the girls were quite determined to not let that be an issue for us. Let’s control what we can control.
This is the surface we play on. And I think they dealt with it really well today. The cold in England also gets windy and rainy, which goes straight through your body.
So this is a different type of cold. But no, I don’t think it was an issue for us today. It was good today.
**On the atmosphere …**
We heard them \[the Arsenal fans\] So they were singing. And yeah, it brings so much atmosphere. And it brings this little extra percent of heat that helps them push themselves. Yeah, it’s fantastic.