_Arsenal won the inaugural FIFA Champions Cup after a breathless 3-2 win after extra time over South American champions Corinthians at Arsenal Stadium. Olivia Smith gave Arsenal the lead before Gabi Zanotti equalised. Lotte Wubben-Moy put Arsenal back ahead before a harsh injury time penalty for Corinthians converted by Vic Albuquerque forced extra-time. Caitlin Foord scored the winner in extra time. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News._
**On a tight, intense game and Arsenal needing to dig deep…**
I agree. Especially if you look at how the game starts and I think we are good on the ball, we play them low, they are accepting to be low and it’s what we expected, but we always knew that they were going to be dangerous and that they were really, really good and disciplined defending their area. And that’s what they did tonight. All my respect to the opposition because it was a really hard game. It had to go to around 20 minutes. So together with the fans, who kept on jumping, I think, for 20 minutes, they brought so much intensity to the game. So it was it was a really hard game for us tonight and because of the reasons, because of ourselves, I think we could have built a game earlier, taking chances and creating better spaces. But at the same time, like I said, a lot of credit to the opposition for closing these places.
**On bringing Codina on in midfield in extra time…**
At that point we know that Codi is good with setpieces. We could see she has been dangerous on attacking set pieces and that was a big part of the game. And she’s a good penalty taker as well if it was to go into penalties. And then on top of that, she’s really good in the pivot role in midfield, which allows the other players to be more attacking. So it was a lot of reasons to put it going on. So that was a tactical decision.
**On whether anything in the game took her by surprise…**
I think the game was what we expected it to be and the opposition came out as we expected, it’s how they started. A big part of their game is when they are in a position where they’re happy with the score line, they will slow it down and they will try to make the game go to their hands and do everything they can to control the tempo. And that was frustrating sometimes, but I think we spoke to the players about staying in the controlled middle from a psychological perspective, never too high never too low and I think we managed that well from a psychological perspective.
**On what she made of the tournament as a whole…**
If you bring different continents together, it’s gonna be a challenge, because competitions are different and run at different times of year. We’re in the middle of the season, so across the challenges to make it work pushing these two games in the middle of a busy season for other teams. It’s about being in preseason and not having played competitive games yet. So there’s challenges everywhere. I think it’s always going to be a challenge as long as the competitions run differently across the world. I’m proud, of course, that we won the competition because you play against the champions of different continents, serial winners and we win it. So I think it’s, we are proud to win it and to have participates in this competition.
**On Anneke Borbe’s injury…**
She’s going to the hospital to get checked, and then hopefully, we will update you soon. Her mum was here to support and I spoke to her mum briefly. Nekke has been so so good for us. She’s been fantastic and so unfortunate for her, the situation and we’re all hoping that she’s going to be right.
**On fitting this competition in the middle of the season…**
The players first of all, they are players to be competing at the highest level and they want to play games- it is what they train for, what they live for. And what’s important that if the schedule gets fuller with games, that we do it in a way that is fair to the players and the players’ health. We are the position where we have a really good squad, with a lot of quality, so we can use different players with short turnarounds. But I’m also aware that not all teams have this luxury. So I think we have to be really aware of what we’re doing, how we’re growing competitions and adding competitions to the schedule. And so we grow it in the right way.
**On what Arsenal will do with the prize money…**
I know that the money will be invested back into what we’re doing and it’s going to help grow the game, grow Arsenal and our position in the club so that’s really positive. What I’m here for is to try and win trophies so I’m very happy with that the first job of the season.
**On the penalty and Corinthians’ complaining to FIFA about Arsenal academy players seeing their training session on Saturday…**
I’m really impressed with the way Corinthians played, their tactical setup their mentality the whole game and their desire to go and win and and establish themselves on the global platform and I think they definitely did. It was a really hard game tonight for us. I think the way they played their game, they did it really well. The penalty, I haven’t even watched it back yet. If the referee makes a call, we’ll have to accept the call and we’ll have to get on with it. They create moments and they do that really well when they create moments. On your second question and I think that was the current intention of playing at the hive, and I watched the academy players watching the session. So I think it was all very innocent and so yeah, that’s unfortunate.
28.Borbe (14.van Domselaar 120+11); 2.Fox (31.Holmberg ‘64), 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley, 11.McCabe; 10.Little(c) (5.L.Codina ‘92), 8.Mariona (21.Pelova ‘105); 9.Mead (18.Kelly ‘76), 23.Russo, 15.Smith (19.Foord ‘64); 25.Blackstenius (12.L.Maanum HT)
Unused: 6.Williamson, 14.van Domselaar, 32.Cooney-Cross, 40.Williams, 44.Harwood, 53.Liddiard