Renée Slegers wants more of the same from our supporters at Sunday’s Barclays Women’s Super League clash with Manchester City.
The N5 crowd helped us get over the line after extra-time to beat Corinthians 3-2 last weekend and lift the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.
Over 40,000 are expected to make the trip to Emirates Stadium, and our head coach was asked in her pre-match press conference on Friday about the role they have to play.
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“It was amazing because I think we had to be resilient [last weekend]. We had to deal with the circumstances, with the different phases of the game, the late equaliser and then going into extra time.
“But the fans had to be resilient as well and they were with us. They were just as mentally strong as the players on the pitch and I think they fuelled the players. I’m so happy that we won the game and could give them the goal and the win and then celebrate in the rain afterwards where everyone was staying and we had that special moment with the fans again.
“It’s so special and it’s so important for us, so let’s bring all that energy again on Sunday together.”
Read more Every word of Renée’s pre-Man City presser
Man City are currently 13 points ahead of us in the WSL but we can reduce that gap by beating them this weekend, with our game in hand against Leicester City taking place later in the season.
“Exactly, we have the Leicester fixture that will be played later,” she said. “What it is about for us at this moment in time is this game, and what we can do in this game, that’s most important, and then we’ll see at the end what it means for the table.
“All we know is that this game we want to get the three points, and the league is really tight this year again. Of course, City have done really well with only one loss so far, so they’ve been amazing in what they’ve been achieving every single week, but yes, we go for the win.”
Recent encounters with Man City have resulted in lots of goals at both ends of the pitch, so Renée was asked about what she remembers of our 3-2 defeat away to them earlier this season, and if she expects another end-to-end contest.
“Of course, there's takeaways from that game from many perspectives,” she explained. “I think it was a really good game of football. They win it. I think, last season before, there’s also quite some goals and we win it. Those are the types of games against City. There's, of course, a lot of learnings from that game and they will also look at the game and see what they can learn from it, how they want to deal with things or exploit things, and that's what we are doing at the moment as well.
“So, yes, as I said, I look forward to it. All processes are the same. We analyse the opposition. We always look at the game that we've played before and what they've been doing. And then we look at ourselves and all the good things that we are doing at the moment as well that we want to bring to the game. So that's no different and I look forward to Sunday.
“Spaces will be more open. That means that there's space for both teams. But I think both teams will also be very aware of wanting to close down certain spaces for opposition because there's so much quality on the pitch for both ends. But me personally, I look forward to this game. I always do, every single game.
“We faced quite some low blocks that we had to break down. I can imagine that City will come down in low blocks at times as well, just like us. But there will be more moments of other phases in the game which we have to manage well when we have qualities. So I look forward to the game.”
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