_Arsenal were 4-0 winners in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 away at Leuven on Wednesday night thanks to a brace from Frida Maanum and goals from Olivia Smith and Alessia Russo. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News._
**On the threat caused by the wide players and whether that was informed by the previous meeting with Leuven in December…**
There was a couple of different decisions. We wanted to go after the wide areas tonight in different ways. I think different players can do that for us and that was part of our decisions, but also a couple of other factors, who’s ready to go, who’s fresh, and how do we start the game? How do we finish the game? So there are always a lot of things going into the decisions, but overall, really happy with the goals we score tonight. Really good goals and happy to have Chloe back, her first start since her injury, we had Kyra back as well on the pitch, Leah made a start again after her time away with injury. So there was a lot of positives like Kim Little making 400 appearances for Arsenal. It was a really good night. We keep a clean sheet again. We set ourselves up well for the second leg so we were happy because again it’s a really good squad performance. There’s so many players involved and the squad is in such a good place and everyone’s contributing at the moment.
**On Foord and Kelly swapping flanks regularly during the game…**
They always have the license to do that because they know the role they play on the left and the right. I think it often happened after set pieces or dead ball situations and we knew that Leuven was gonna try to restart quickly, so we just wanted to get set in our shape as quick as possible. For that reason, they ended up on different sites sometimes.
**On winning a Champions League knockout first leg for the first time in a few years…**
That was really clear for us, understanding how Leuven wanted to go into the game, of course, they have a different entry into the game. They lost 3 nil in December. We won 3 nil in December and they wanted to go a little bit lower and try to avoid those early goals which gave us the opportunity to be a lot on the ball and make them work, make them move in their positions and then open things up. And I think that’s what we did really well today.
**On Kim Little making her 400th Arsenal appearance…**
It’s a pleasure working with her and it’s a pleasure for me to work with the whole group. We’re working together in a really good way between staff and players. But yeah, Kim is special. She’s the type of leader that role models all the right behaviour and sets the standards, takes care of herself so well, prepares so well. I think I’ve said it many times before everything she does is 100% and she’s so humble and that’s a big part of who we are right now. And I think that humility you could see in our performance today and how we defended and how we stop transitions. And Kim’s a big part of it because that’s a big part of her personality. I had the opportunity to get to know the players in a different role and actually, I don’t think I worked so much with Kim back then.
I’ve played against Kim so we knew each other from playing against each other. It’s grown between Kim and me, there’s not always a lot of interaction needed or communication needed because we don’t see everything the same way, but I think our values are very similar. I love working with her and Kim is not always someone with a lot of words. I am not either, but when we get into detail and we get into deep discussions, we can go on for a long time which I really enjoy and it’s a pleasure to work with a player like Kim. It’s such a legend for the club and a legend in the game, in my opinion.
I haven’t followed her whole career in detail, but the last couple of years I’ve worked really closely with her and seen her every day and I’ve seen her performing in games. I think what she does so well at the moment is, I think we spoke about it the other day, I said I think you’re still getting better every day. And I think she has a lot of bravery in her game, so much control, but also more bravery is opening up more, is playing forwards and then we all know what she does out of possession. She works so hard, so much ground, reads the game so well. I think she’s still getting better because she’s so interested of the game, wants to learn, is reflective and the game is growing as well, so you have to keep on growing as a player. It’s a pleasure to get the opportunity to work with Kim.
**On use of the squad in recent weeks…**
I believe in this squad, I believe in the players and I think what we’re doing at the moment is that high buy-in, there’s a shared purpose that we have. We’re going after the same thing. Everyone has their individual purpose. You’re playing your role for the team and that’s really strong at the moment. I think we have a lot of clarity on how we want to play our football. So even if we make changes, for me, if you look at tonight, I don’t think you notice it as much. Of course, you have different players with different qualities, but the structure and the foundation is always there. So we’re in a really good place from a technical perspective as well as a team.
14.van Domselaar; 2.Fox (31.Holmberg HT), 6.Williamson(c) (3.Wubben-Moy ‘61), 5.L.Codina, 11.McCabe; 21.Pelova, 8.Mariona (32.Cooney-Cross ‘73); 18.Kelly (23.Russo ‘61), 12.L.Maanum, 19.Foord; 15.Smith (10.Little ‘81)
Unused: 7.Catley, 13.Votikova