On Wednesday evening Arsenal will play Wolfsburg in the Champions League quarter-final first leg at Emirates Stadium. It will be the first time that the teams have met competitively since the 2013 semi-final, which Wolfsburg won 4-1 on aggregate on the way to winning the competition.
In the team for those games in 2013 were current Gunners Jordan Nobbs, Jen Beattie and current skipper Kim Little. Observing pre-match media duties, Arseblog News asked Kim about her recollection of that tie against midfield heavyweights like Nadine Kessler, who now heads up women’s football for UEFA.
“I remember that game very well, I was chatting to a member of staff here about it the other day. We lost the tie 4-1 overall and I scored in the second leg and Jordan set me up but, yes Wolfsburg were really dominant in that game.
“But I still have really fond memories of it, playing against players like Kessler and Gosling in their midfield who were just at the top of their game at the time and we found it very difficult to live with them.
“It was a semi-final and I really took something that at a very young age playing against players like that. Now I want to use my experience for the game tomorrow night and take everything I learned in that tie and ever since then into this game.”
Disgusting😳 https://t.co/Sxo6aLqNkv
— Leah Williamson (@leahcwilliamson) March 18, 2022
The 31-year-old captain says the team is in a better position than they were in December at the conclusion of the group stages. Arsenal qualified for the knockouts but were beaten 4-0 by Barcelona and 4-1 by Hoffenheim in their last two group matches.
The team is now unbeaten in ten games and has won its last five. “Our performances have been much better in the last two months and the results have followed that,” she points out.
“The Champions League is a very different competition, towards the end of last year our performances in the Champions League weren’t good enough we need to be mindful of that.
“These games will be very different, we need to take confidence from our performances recently but be mindful of who we are up against in Wolfsburg.”
There are many superb players in the current Arsenal squad, lead by our “perfect example” Captain Kim, including great new signings in Stina & Rafa – let’s take our recent form into the game versus Wolfsburg!
I bet Tobin Heath is so glad Lotte scored, after taking such a rubbish free kick!