It will be a familiar feeling when we fly back from Lisbon with the win following Thursday’s 2-0 UEFA Women’s Champions League success at Benfica.
Asked for her initial post-match reflections on the game, Lotte Wubben-Moy was full of praise for her teammates.
“Three points, that was the most important thing we wanted to have today,” she said. “In terms of performance, it's a clean sheet, we always take pride in that and I think Daphne made an unbelievable save in the first half, that helped us achieve that. It's a team effort, we had so much energy from the bench, getting that second goal really allowed us to settle into the game and we played them away with quite a lot of fouls.
“We knew that was the move that they wanted to play but ultimately I think we were able to achieve what we wanted to and that was three points and we're leaving Lisbon once again victorious.”
It was clear at half-time that the players would need to dig deep and get more out of each other to find the opening goal in the second half.
“We spoke about having more runs, being more lively,” Lotte explained. “I think the late run into the box pocket was open, they left that gap quite open because they were picking up Alessia from the two centre backs, she's such a threat and that's the best thing about Less, she's such a threat but also other teams know that that's the case so that then allows more space for other players to come in, and I think we were able to work them down and ultimately that was achieved with getting that free-kick and scoring that goal that Less so hardly worked on.”
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Report: Benfica 0-2 Arsenal Women](https://www.arsenal.com/fixture/women/2025-Oct-16/benfica-women-women-match-report?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
Russo’s goal gave us a more comfortable lead, but it was Beth Mead who forced the opener by putting Benfica’s defence under pressure, showing our never-say-die spirit.
“Oh without a doubt, I mean without sounding cliché, I think you've got to grind to the top and that's what European football is about, you know, midweek, we had a game on the weekend, this is what it's about and being able to show what we're about is I think the next step for us,” Lotte added.
“We're playing football, we're playing really good football and the goal to score is by working teams down and getting that cutting edge, that cutting finish, so we know that will come.”
Olivia Smith particularly looked like a handful for the Benfica defence to deal with, and Lotte is no stranger to her talents in training.
“Liv's such a wonderful player, wonderful person as well, she goes about her business quite quietly but she's loud on the pitch and we saw that,” she said. “She's obviously got a bit of a history playing here in Portugal, I think there were a few friendly faces for her that she has played against before and I know they weren’t enjoying playing against her today, so she played a big part in today's win. Everyone did, but yeah shout out Liv.”
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