Arsenal captain Kim Little spoke to the English media after Wednesday night’s 1-0 defeat to Hacken in Sweden. The first three questions are from Arseblog News.
On the disappointment of the result…
Obviously it’s straight after the game so I’m disappointed with the result. I never like to lose a football match. That’s my initial response. I think when you represent this badge you want to win every match so that’s disappointing, but it’s the first half of this tie and we put that into perspective. We created a lot of chances, which we should have been a bit more clinical with. But Hacken were a big threat, they were aggressive in their play, and they came out on top tonight. We need to make sure we up our game for the next leg.
On playing against Hacken’s intense pressing style…
It’s difficult but I think we could have done that better today. I think we could have been a bit more intelligent and smarter with that, because we knew that’s what they would be like. It’s something that we need to improve on for the next game.
On adjusting to playing on artificial turf…
We played the ball out of play a few times, didn’t we? We’re obviously used to playing on nice grass pitches- we’re spoilt. So it does make a difference but we need to adjust. We trained on it yesterday and it maybe takes a little bit of time but that’s part of it. We could have worked on that better in hindsight. We need to move on and turn it around in the second leg.
On the opportunity to turn things around in the coming week…
That’s the fast paced nature of football. Right now my feeling is not that nice a feeling because it’s straight after the match and we’ve lost, but we’ve got another game Sunday, which we need to focus on to start the week, then the second leg next week. They’re another two huge matches. Yes, we would have liked to have started in a better way but I have no doubt that we can turn that around.
On the travelling Arsenal fans…
They’re incredible. I think every game we play now, it’s so special in different ways, whether it’s an away Champions League game, playing at the Emirates or at Meadow Park. We’re incredibly grateful for our fans. It just seems to be getting more and more special, so we’re thankful for them for travelling and coming to support us here.
On whether the game will be different at Meadow Park…
Yeah, definitely. We all mentioned that in our huddle then. We go back and get to play them at home in front of our fans, which we love doing. That will be a special night and hopefully we can get the result we need.
Eidevall is wasting Kim Little, she’s a fighter and deserves better.
I’m confident that the return leg will see a much better performance from the Gunners.
This game reminded me a lot of the Chelsea vs Barcelona Women’s game, where Chelsea scored a goal and were parked in the area, and in the final minutes Barça almost tied it up, the ball hit the crossbar and everything, and it was only not a draw because there was time to end the game, Hacken didn’t know how to take advantage of the opportunities, I hope Arsenal takes advantage of the opportunities that appeared, now think about the next game against City. Arsenal needs to play with the strength of hatred, be more incisive in the duels, and… Read more »
meant: with feet on the ‘ground’
It was a disappointing result although the game could have gone either way, but of course we didn’t take our chances.
In the return leg we will have home advantage, which should include more favourable refereeing decisions, plus no artificial turf to navigate.
I feel Daphne, Leah & both Alessia and Stina, should all start next Thursday.