THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal take on Glasgow Rangers at Meadow Park in their first Champions League qualifier on Wednesday evening. Earlier in the day, Atletico Madrid will take on Rosenborg. The winner of Atleti v Rosenborg will play the winner of Arsenal v Rangers on Saturday evening for the right to go through to the two legged playoff round later this month.
The losers will play one another in a third place playoff on Saturday lunchtime at Meadow Park. This game is played mainly for coefficient reasons but also to justify the expenditure of teams travelling. As Arsenal found to their cost last year when they exited at this stage to Paris FC in Sweden, they can take nothing for granted.
Arsenal v Rangers | LIVE on https://t.co/tK9rcmLS6V! 🤩
🗣 Pre-match discussion
🎙 Live stream with commentary
🤔 Half-time and full-time analysisOur matchday show kicks off at 7.25pm (UK) tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/ZgAqvgWcEy
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) September 3, 2024
Even as significant favourites against Rangers, a single 90 minute game has the sort of jeopardy that can end a team’s Champions League campaign with a deflected shot or a dodgy red card call (perish the thought of that ever happening…) Unlike last season however, when Arsenal played on a plastic pitch just three weeks after eight players had gone to the final weekend of an Australia New Zealand World Cup, Arsenal have a full pre-season behind them.
Last season, they also had four players on the sidelines with ACL injuries. This year, that number is down to one. New signings Mariona, Rosa Kafaji and Daphne van Domselaar are on board and Arsenal are playing at home. Anything other than a comfortable Arsenal victory would be a concern.
TEAM NEWS
Beth Mead and Steph Catley were training individually away from the group on Tuesday and a decision on both will be made on Tuesday evening. Both have slight muscle strains. Lotte Wubben-Moy was back in full training with the group on Tuesday and is available. Daphne van Domselaar will have a late check before deciding whether she will be with the squad on Wednesday.
Lina Hurtig will miss both games as she ramps up her fitness having missed the second half of last season for personal reasons. Mariona and Rosa Kafaji are in line for their competitive debuts. Victoria Pelova will miss most of the season with an ACL injury.
Squad
Goalkeepers: 1.Zinsberger 14.van Domselaar 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.Codina 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 26.Wienroither 62.Reid
Midfielders: 10.Little 12.Maanum 13.Walti 16.Kafaji 22.Kuhl 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 8.Mariona 9.Mead 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius 56.Godfrey 59.Agyemang
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘One part that is important to see is that they were very close to knocking out Benfica in last year’s qualifiers and Benfica is a very good European team. They went to extra time. Their run in the UWCL last season deserves a lot of respect, they are very, very capable of good performances in these stages.
‘Of course, we use Kevin Murphy (Arsenal’s chief recruitment officer who was previously at Rangers) as one person who has insight into Rangers and we also have a very good analytics team who have been very thorough in their process, so we feel well prepared.
‘It is knockout football, we need to bring our very best from the first second to the last. It is no underestimating opponents from us, we know how tricky of a stage this one is. We are expecting a very good opponent and we will do our very best to progress.’
LAST TIME OUT
These teams have yet to meet competitively.
THE OPPOSITION
Rangers are coached by former Arsenal, Birmingham, Notts County and Reading midfielder Jo Potter. Rangers are a team built on very exciting academy products like Kirsty MacLean, Mia McAulay, Laura Berry and Elidh Austin, as well as seasoned pros like Jane Ross, Laura Rafferty and captain Nicola Docherty.
✈️ Next Up | Arsenal (A)
🎙️ Jo Potter spoke to @RangersTV ahead of this week's trip to London to face Arsenal in the Champions League | #UWCL pic.twitter.com/BQYBSiq76G
— Rangers Women (@RangersWFC) September 2, 2024
Rangers have played the first five games of their SWPL season already, winning all five with 43 goals scored and 0 conceded. Clearly, the level of opponent they have played are barely semi-pro at this stage so not comparable to what they will face at Meadow Park, but they will certainly be in good physical condition for this match.
Following the long dominance of Glasgow City in Scotland, Rangers and Celtic have begun to change that hegemony in recent years. Rangers won the SWPL title in 2021-22 and finished runners-up last season, but they did win the Scottish FA Cup last season too as women’s football in Scotland begins to reflect the men’s game.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Mariona Caldentey is likely to start on the left wing for Arsenal and one of her objectives is to make Arsenal’s approach play swifter, smoother and to move deep defensive blocks around a little. We got a glimpse of this on Saturday at Southampton with the Spaniard moving in-field to create midfield overloads and to play one and two touch football on the edge of the area.
Mariona represents a different style of winger to the ones Eidevall has typically deployed. A winger who drifts inside to play as more of a wide 10 is not the type of wide player he has typically used. Clearly the aim is to make Arsenal more fluid and more difficult for opponents to predict and Mariona’s ‘five-a-side’ style will be key to that.
Rangers are likely to play in a low defensive block and put numbers behind the ball, the line-up from the Southampton game on Saturday suggests that Frida Maanum may start ahead of Rosa Kafaji in the number 10 role. Mariona moved inside to create strong combinations with Maanum on Saturday and allowed McCabe to overlap from left-back.
PREDICTED LINE UPS
Subs: 3.Wubben-Moy, 13.Walti, 14.van Domselaar, 16.Kafaji, 22.Kuhl, 25.Blackstenius, 26.Wienroither, 40.Williams, 56.Godfrey, 59.Agyemang, 62.Reid
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The match kicks off at 7.30pm at Meadow Park and will be streamed live and free of charge on Arsenal.com.
COMING UP
We will have match reaction from Jonas Eidevall on the site on Wednesday evening, as well as all the build-up to Saturday’s game- whoever that is against- across the site on Friday and Saturday.
As admitted in the press conference by Leah the consequences of last year’s UWCL qualification failure had an affect on the team which overshadowed the whole season.
Not this time🙌
As it seems that Beth and Steph won’t be ready for tomorrow. Presumably Viv Lia and/or Laila Harbert/Maddy Earl will come into the squad?
Oops Beth and Steph aren’t in the squad so their deputies are already named.
Tomorrow will be hard work against a side that are in the groove and stacked with players who will not be intimidated. That was the salient quality of Paris FC last season.
Nevertheless, I am really hoping for lots of goals – not just a win, or playing the way JE wants the team to play. It’s what the players, JE and the backroom staff need to give everyone confidence that all the “suffering”, as Eidevall called it, has been worthwhile and borne fruit. Ideally we need to stamp our authority on the mini tournament from the first game.
I’m seeing a perfect partnership between Mannun and Mariona, Frida prefers a one-touch game, and makes the game faster and I’ve noticed that lately it seems like she’s lighter and more at ease, especially near the penalty area which is essential, creating many goal chances, I hope she starts tomorrow. Personally I would leave Kafaji on the right.
Good to know it’ll be streamed on arsenal.com! COYG!
Actually I think that predicted line-up is good enough to win the league. My concern is the depth in some positions and injuryprone players. We cant have another injurycrisis this Season. Even if we will there are no excuses because everyone can see what we need and if the club doesnt do anything about it we have ourselves to blame. We have the best opportunity for a very long time to win more then one trophy this season, I just hope the whole club will take this chance and bring in whatever we need to do that. That is exactly… Read more »
Good luck ladies!