_Arsenal were eliminated from the Women’s FA Cup at the quarter-final stage with a 1-0 defeat at home to Liverpool after a Daphne van Domselaar own goal. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News._
**On how much the conditions contributed to a below par performance…**
Something we can’t control and it’s something that they have to deal with as well, so it’s about what team deals with it the best way and that’s Liverpool today and I think thatt is the game. It’s closer to their game than our game, so I think it’s quite an even game if you look at the stats and the shots, so unfortunately, they get that shot, it’s in a phase of the game where the game is slowed down a lot and there’s a lot of stoppages and then the challenge is to stay concentrated and they got that shot off. They scored that goal but mostly, I think our quality on the ball isn’t good enough today.
**On the more controllable aspects of the performance where Arsenal could have been better and her half time changes…**
Without going into too much detail we had a couple of changes we made from our perspective and how we wanted to go to a couple of areas, but it was just hard because you get to that area normally we do things on one or two touches and it just wasn’t possible today. So we we had to take another touch and they are a very good pressing team, so we got under pressure a lot, it just didn’t flow as usual.
**On whether Arsenal lacked composure when Liverpool took the lead…**
Maybe but this is of course a different situation because against West Ham it happens early in the game and today it happens late in the game, and so no big conclusion there. I think we try everything at the end of the half as well, we just don’t create enough.
**On the scrappiness of the game overall…**
Definitely so it’s not helping our game at all.
**On the Champions League being the only competition Arsenal can win now…**
It is very important but all games are important, so we know that all games that are ahead of us are going to be important games and it was the case before this one as well. So in that sense from the pressure perspective, nothing changes, but now we have two competitions to focus on.
**On whether Arsenal could have controlled the number of stoppages…**
Of course you can, because if you have the ball, then they can’t kick it out so they can’t slow it down, so it’s about having the ball for a long time, and so that’s that’s on us. That’s the thing we can control about it, and then, of course, when it happens, when the ball goes out, you always try to impact a little bit with your communication towards players and referees, but that that’s just minor, so I think our big impact could be in being better on the ball.
**On picking the players up after this disappointment…**
It’s a big hit because that was a big one for us. So the girls are very disappointed, but they also know that this is life of a footballer, you know you are not always winning and you have to come back so not everything is always goning to be perfect. They’re very disappointed at the moment and they might be tomorrow as well, but then we have to go again.
14.van Domselaar; 2.Fox, 6.Williamson, 7.Catley, 11.McCabe; 10.Little(c) (25.Blacktenius ‘82), 32.Cooney-Cross (13.Walti ‘82); 9.Mead (12.L.Maanum, HT), 8.Mariona, 19.Foord (28.Ilestedt ‘87); 23.Russo
Unused: 1.Zinsberger, 16.Kafaji, 21.Pelova, 22.Nighswonger, 62.Reid