Arsenal boss Renee Slegers says she and her team are motivated to make history by winning the inaugural FIFA Champions Cup this week. The Gunners face CAF Champions ASFAR from Morocco at Brentford Community Stadium on Wednesday evening.
If Arsenal win they will face the winners of Corinthians v Gotham at Arsenal Stadium on Sunday in the final. Slegers, who led the team to the Champions League in May, is keen for Arsenal to make history once more in a new, intercontinental tournament for women’s football.
’Well, first of all, very proud that we are part of this competition. We are part of this competition because we won the Champions League last year. And it will be interesting and challenging to measure ourselves against top teams from other continents, so we’re looking forward to getting to work.
’This is a new trophy in women’s football, and I think Arsenal have been trailblazers for many years and we want to be part of that and we want to make history as well. We’re very proud of being in this competition.’
The timing of the competition has created conversation with Gotham FC and Corinthians out of season, while ASFAR and Arsenal are not. Though the tournament does come at a busy time in the English domestic calendar and Slegers is confident she has the squad to deal with those demands.
’We are playing a lot of games at the moment. But we also have a lot of players available, so we have a squad to be able to manage these schedules and it’s always a puzzle to make that work as good as possible. But we’re ready for it. We’re ready for it tomorrow and we’re ready for the weekend.’
the tournament brings together different football cultures and styles, with Gotham playing a very transitional style in particular, while ASFAR and Corinthians are used to dominating their domestic leagues. Slegers says she thinks Arsenal have a bit of everything.
’I want to believe that we have a little bit of everything. I think we have very intelligent and technically gifted players in the squad. We have a clear identity on how we want to play. We like to dominate the ball.
‘We want to have the ball as much as possible. I also want to be directing moments and the physical side of the game is important in the league we play in and getting more and more important in Europe as well. So we need to impose ourselves physically as well. So I want to believe that we have a little bit of everything.’