Renée Slegers says our players will be keeping their feet on the ground ahead of Wednesday’s UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final play-off first leg away to OH Leuven.
Whilst we won 3-0 at Den Dreef Stadium in December’s meeting with the side that finished bottom of the play-off places in the competition’s league phase, Leuven have been flying domestically.
They’ve won all six Belgian Super League matches since losing to us and are top of the table by five points.
“I think what they did against us in the game here before the new year was full of different approaches,” our head coach explained in Tuesday’s pre-match press conference. “I think it was a different first half versus the second half. I think they gave us some time on the ball in the first half, second half more aggressive, and of course this is a different scenario where there's two legs to play, 180 minutes.
“They're the first team to be at home and we play the second leg at home, so I'll have to guess their approach to the game. I think what will be important for them is to defend really well against us, but that will be just as important for us as well because I'm sure they will try and create things with fast attacks, with counter-attacks and we all want to stop that.
“We respect who they are and they’re leading the table in Belgium and had a good performance in the Champions League. So even though we came away with a 3-0 win here last time, we're very humble for the challenge tomorrow.”
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Every word of Renée's pre-Leuven presser](https://www.arsenal.com/news/every-word-renees-pre-leuven-presser?utm_source=arsenaldotcom&utm_medium=embedded-article&utm_campaign=news)
Asked if we can afford to be more experimental with our approach against Leuven than against Manchester City, Renée continued: “Tomorrow is going to be a different game, different opposition, different scenario.
“They will set up differently and they will try to find their solutions as well. So it will be a new game, but we have high belief in the things that we're doing right now, both on and off the ball.”
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