_Arsenal beat Real Madrid in the UWCL on Wednesday evening at Meadow Park. Caroline Weir gave the visitors a first half lead but a pair of second half headers from Alessia Russo bagged three points for the holders. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post match. The first two questions are from Arseblog News._
**On exposing Madrid from crosses as they did when the teams met in March…**
We saw that there’s opportunities against our fullbacks in wide areas. We worked a lot with the overloads and wide areas, but we see more and more when you start to commit numbers wide. I think with the superiority that we have with Olivia Smith and Chloe Kelly started in those wide areas, in the 1 V 1s and that’s something that was part of the game plan to set up as much as possible. Chloe having had such an impact against Madrid last year with those crosses and the type of cross that we wanted against Madrid. I think we had a couple of them. I wish we did even more. But yeah happy with that.
**On whether they’ve worked on out of possession structure after the Bayern game…**
We have been. I think what Bayern did in the second half with stacking numbers high and playing more of a long second ball into those wide areas where we were still in a pressing position with our midfielders and we didn’t recover back quick enough. Madrid plays different, but actually in the second half, they started to do similar things with players high and wide with players in triple width. There were a lot of players around those areas today, we always look at the numbers and how we use our midfielders in the press. But today we kept our two midfielders close, Mariona played a little bit closer to the back line.
**On the result being more important than the performance…**
We needed this three points. I mean, we this block has been a challenging block for us, Leicester we started the block really well with a convincing performance. Chelsea at home is always going to be two top teams against each other, where we wish we would have come away with the win, but we didn’t, then we travelled to Bayern and we go 2-0 up in halftime, happy with the performance, but then we let everything go in the second half when the game the game changes. Then not converting chances, not creating big enough chances in the North London Derby whilst not conceding any action, almost nothing. It was challenging and it was small margins, so we really needed three points today and that I agree with you. The points were more important than the performance today, there’s always things you want to do better, but there’s not clear areas in our game that we are really unhappy with at the moment, just details and small things.
**On how much of a boost this win can be going forward…**
It’s very important for the team. Of course, you want to get rewarded for the work you do and to be able to keep on believing in the process. It’s important to get the win and that is the most importance thing today. We went in into the game under pressure. We didn’t speak about it, but I think everyone understands we had had to win. If you look at the Champions League table, we are 1-0 down at halftime. But the way the players performed under pressure is such a high level so really proud of the players.
**On her approach at half time…**
You always have to make a decision when you’re going to have time. One side of me is like, do we need more of this? \*punches fist into palm\* or do we stay calm because we believe that we’re doing the right things and we believe it will happen for us. And it was the the latter we went in to half time with and you could feel the players were really present today, very concentrated in the here and now, and you could feel that calmness and composure in the changing room. Everyone believing that we could do it in the second half. So it was really good.
**On Alessia Russo’s form…**
It’s hard because there is so much to say about Alessia, because there’s so many things to her, not only as a football player, but also as a person. She takes care of the team in such a good way. She rolemodels all the right behaviours. She sees people, she helps people, she works hard. She’s 100% every every day. Everything in training is game intensity, always wants to learn things. We think ownership in our environment is important, so we ask the team, for example, to go and look, have a look at the opposition and she would always do it and she’s just everything. She is very respectful- humble also to work with. I think that’s the way she goes about life and her sports and her role in the team just reflects how she performs on the pitch. She’s a fantastic footballer.
**On the importance of a good result before the international break…**
It was really important to get the win and get a reward for the hard work, but also leaving Arsenal now for two weeks in a positive way and hopefully hunger and belief and when we’re back, we’re going to continue.
**On whether she felt under pressure going into the game…**
When I say we were under pressure, I mean from a Champions League table perspective, we were under pressure because we needed points because to be able to go at least to the playoffs. So from that perspective, I felt we were under pressure. Otherwise, from the outside I don’t know- what was important internally was for ourselves to show what we can do, what we’re capable of, that we can bounce back and if we work really hard and keep on believing in the processes and everyone going in the same direction, rewards will come and that’s what’s happened today. So it was really important moment for the future.
**On the choice between playing Russo as a 9 or a 10…**
I wouldn’t say difficult. It’s headache sometimes. How are we going to use the team and the players and the team over time and in the moment in the most effective way, and I think, for example, Alessia and Stina’s partnership has been working well. I’m happy with it. I think that partnership is building, but everyone knows how good Alessia is in the nine with her hold up play, linking play, her pressing game, her presence in the box, her different types of finishes. She’s really good. We used her in the nine today again and she gave us the goals. On the heading and we have a set piece coach who always wants to work on heading with the players. Alessio has always offered. So she does her extra heading at the end of the session.
**On how the midfield trio worked today…**
We haven’t trained it because we had two days in between the games to be together and we actually haven’t done any technical work ahead of this game, but we’ve done it with meetings and video. I think what happened, they had to work together because Madrid marked our midfield, so they had to move together to create spaces. So they had to work together and they did it really well today.
14.van Domselaar; 2.Fox, 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley, 11.McCabe (24.Hinds ‘86); 32.Cooney-Cross (5.L.Codina 90+2), 8.Mariona; 15.Smith (19.Foord ‘62), 12.L.Maanum 18.Kelly (9.Mead ‘62); 23.Russo (25.Blackstenius ‘86)
Unused: 21.Pelova, 22.Nighswonger, 28.Borbe, 44.Harwood