Unfortunately, Arsenal Women’s Kim Little and Lia Walti midfield duo may not be the midfield pivot interim manager Renée Slegers relies on to school Bayern Munich at Meadow Park tonight. Our Gunner women host Bayern for their last Group C match of the UEFA Women’s Champions League 2024-25. Kick-off: 8PM UK.
You can watch the match live via TNT Sports an DAZN’s official Youtube Channel.
The German side managed to pick up a 5-2 win over our girls in early October. That was one of the two results that forced Jonas Eidevall to quit (the other result was the 2-0 London derby loss to Chelsea). Surely, our Gunner women will be looking to avenge that loss. It has already been emphasized how a win sees to it that our Gunner women end the group stages as group leaders, which is great, isn’t it?
That said, for a win Renée will have to field her strongest team, but will she be able to do so without two of her key players, Kim Little and Lia Walti?
Before the November-December international break, the Walti-Kim midfield pairing had been the go-to Arsenal women’s midfield pivot that laid the foundation for Arsenal’s dominance. The two midfielders’ experience, cautious approach to the game, and on-the-ball ability saw them flourish and offer our Gunner women the most balanced engine room.
During that break, it was sad to hear that Lia Walti realized she wasn’t well. She had an abscess that required hospitalization. She has missed Arsenal’s last three games, and though she’s been spotted back in training, it is unlikely she features versus Bayern.
When Renée was asked for injury updates on Tuesday in her press conference ahead of Arsenal versus Bayern, she hinted there were no updates (meaning Walti would still be unavailable).
For Kim, on the other hand, Renée insinuated she isn’t to be rushed back to the team, saying that even though she may have been perfect for the clash with Bayern, her absence wasn’t because she was being saved for this game.
Renée said of the Arsenal skipper, “We’ve just had to manage Kim. She happened to be back in training before Liverpool, which was very positive. But we also knew there were only a couple of days before Liverpool following two games with tight turnarounds, so we are just building her back with minutes. So, we haven’t been planning the whole block for Kim to play against Bayern. She was just away, and we had to build her back into availability.”
From those claims, I can’t help but feel Renée Slegers is hinting it may not be worth rushing Kim back into the starting XI as she may not be ready given the injury issues she’s been dealing with.
Without Kim and Walti, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Mariona Caldentey have stepped into midfield. After the 1-0 win over Liverpool, Renée Slegers labeled them daring. Hopefully, their boldness helps our Gunner women ensure that Bayern leaves North London with a big LOSS tonight!
What are your thoughts Gooners?
Michelle M
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