Fresh from scoring in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Benfica in Lisbon on Thursday evening, Alessia Russo stopped for a chat with Arseblog News after the match.
On having to stay calm and patient in the game…
I think we knew that they wanted to slow the game down, they’re a gritty team, like you said. I think it was really important for us to be patient, but also take our chances when we got them. It’s not an easy place to come away in the Champions League in a one game only situation and to come to Benfica, it’s tough. But I thought we did really well. We were solid at the back and we took our two chances.
On what was said at half-time after a flat first half…
Continuing in our press and our counter pressure, which was really important. I think if they won the second balls, that was what they were looking forward to transition quickly, so that was a big thing that we wanted to keep going in the second half and also just create and find the space. They’re a solid team defensively, very tight at the back. We wanted to find the gaps, pull them out and find spaces where we can break them down.
On the setpiece routine that led to her goal…
Chloe is brilliant on set pieces, we have loads of players that can deliver great balls. I think when the space was there for us in the box we just have to be ready to get on the end of crosses like that. I think the delivery was perfect and we had lots of runners in the box. We work on set pieces all the time and they’re a big part of winning and losing football games.
On Arsenal trying to play their way back into form…
It’s clearly not been as easy as we’d have liked, we’re finding connections, finding different things and sometimes it takes a little bit of time, but we’re working really hard. We’ve got a really talented squad and I have no doubt that these two wins will push the momentum forward now. It has to. We want to be competing in all four competitions. The standards will be high from all of us and we’ll go away for internationals now. Everyone will be with their teams and we’ll come back ready to go because we’ve got another massive block after that break.