**Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers described her team’s exit from the Adobe Women’s FA Cup as a ‘big hit’ after a 1-0 loss to Liverpool.**
The Gunners had their Wembley Stadium dreams shattered as an own-goal by Daphne van Domselaar sent Liverpool through to the competition’s semi finals. Head coach Renée Slegers said her side are extremely disappointed to have lost sight of silverware once more.
_“It’s a big hit because that was a big one for us,”_ Slegers explained. “_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. They’re very disappointed at the moment and they might be tomorrow as well, but then we have to go again.”_
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The Meadow Park surface left much to be desired after Boreham Wood’s Saturday game on the pitch the day before. Arsenal struggled to work with the torn-up pitch, forcing a lot of the momentum into the hands of Liverpool. The aerial and physical dominance shown by the Reds meant that they were able to snuff out any potential attacking chance.
_“It’s something we can’t control and it’s something that they \[Liverpool\] 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 that is the game,”_ Slegers reasoned.
Liverpool registered three shots on target across the 100 minutes of playing time, with Arsenal managing to form just one meaningful chance.
_“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.”_
Out of the Women’s Super League (WSL) title race, Arsenal’s only chance at silverware now arrives in the form of the UEFA Women’s Champions League as the side travel to Madrid next week.
Despite the pressing significance of the quarter final legs ahead of them, Slegers remained level-headed when asked to analyse the task at hand.
_“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.”_