Renée Slegers has been previewing the last game of our UEFA Women’s Champions League group phase, which pits us against 12th-placed OH Leuven on Wednesday.
After revealing that she’s actually played at their stadium before for the Dutch national team, our head coach was asked about Leuven’s main threats.
“They're interesting because they are very disciplined in everything they do,” she said. “They defend in certain areas, but they also have the ability to change things in-game. They can go higher, they can go lower. They have quite some depth in the squad, so they can make changes that will change the game for them.
“So there are a lot of different scenarios for the game tomorrow. You see, in the Champions League, it's just a small data set, but the first half has looked different from the second half so far, and only those five games, maybe four games, apart from the Barcelona game, which plays out differently.
“But it's going to be an interesting game with a lot of different scenarios, like we just said, and a team that can change in-game as well.”
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Renée then went into detail on how important it’s been for us to move the ball quickly and play with more confidence lately, as demonstrated in the weekend’s 3-1 win over Everton.
“It's part of us,” she said. “I think when we’re at our best we move really well. I think it's also about the way the opposition teams set up in this block so far. I think xG is a metric that looks different for different sources. So for my xG source, it wasn't the highest of the league so far.
“Possession, that's different, I agree that was the highest so far. It's important for us to be really good on the ball. We were happy with the way we moved and the way we found spaces against Everton and getting players in good positions. They did that really well on the pitch.
“Moving the ball with detail and speed is important to be able to manipulate spaces and suffocate the position. So that's definitely part of our DNA, but we're also looking to be clinical for moments when we win the ball or be faster in our attacks when opportunities are given.
“But yes, the Everton game played out that way because they dropped off and dropped low early. But I was really happy with the way the players moved on the pitch.”
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