14.van Domselaar; 2.Fox, 6.Williamson, 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley (11.McCabe ‘74); 32.Cooney-Cross, 13.Walti’ 23.Russo, 12.L.Maanum, 8.Mariona (19.foord ‘74); 25.Blackstenius
Unused: 1.Zinsberger, 5.L.Codina, 9.Mead, 16.Kafaji, 22.Nighswonger, 28.Ilestedt, 62.Reid
Arsenal were defeated 2-1 in the Subway League Cup semi-final at home to Manchester City on Thursday night. Mary Fowler gave City a first half lead, Mariona equalised from the penalty spot before van Domselaar saved a Fowler penalty. But Fowler won the game at the death with a long range strike. Renee Slegers spoke to the press post-match, the first three questions are from Arseblog News.
On whether she was surprised by the changes City made compared to Sunday…
No, I don’t think so. They just went a little bit more aggressive in their press, which still left the same spaces. It was just hard for us to find those spaces.
On Miedema finding space behind Cooney-Cross as she committed to press in the first half…
Yeah, so that was one of the things we adjusted. Finding other ways to press the centre-back and keeping that space a little bit more closed, because they came and went way too often in that space.
On how she saw the game overall…
I think they are better in the first half. City, they dominated on the spells of the first half. I think we do much better in the second half, so I think it’s almost a game of two halves. But I think even though we do better and we build better attacks, there’s not enough end product on the attacks. So like you say, we don’t create as many chances as we would like on those attacks. And then the game ends that way. I think it’s a throw-in situation. I’m not sure if it’s their throw, but we can’t control that. But they get the ball, we get time to organise and then all of a sudden, it’s a goal with a shot off the left foot. She finds that little gap to shoot, and we knew that. It’s a hard one to take because there’s no time at all to do something about it if the referee blew the whistle two seconds after.
On the challenge of playing City twice in four days…
The difficulties are something else, because I think if you play one team and you play the team a couple of months later, whether you play the other games, they probably look different from a personnel perspective. It’s also how they tweak things and how they do things against other teams. And now you get the same opposition straight away, which I think is a fun challenge. And I think we’ve both been playing the game of what we will do differently, what do we think they will do differently. I’m sure City did the same thing in their office the last two days. They came out more aggressive. We tried to find similar spaces because they were there. We just had to find a way of finding those spaces, which we did much better in the second half.
On Daphne van Domselaaar…
She’s world class, I think. But also the work in the background with our goalkeeper coach, preparing the goalkeeper in this way. So, no, I’m happy she kept us in the game.
On the signing of Chloe Kelly…
I’m very happy with that. I think she’s going to add something to our game. Like I’ve been saying before, she’s a great one-for-one player, good with both feet, good crosser, good finisher. I’m happy she’s with us.
On her expectations before the game and van Domselaar’s penalty save…
I was expecting this to be a game of less goals, because I think both teams were unhappy with the chances and goals conceded on Sunday. Daphne is a world-class goalkeeper, I think. And there are still areas of improvement, but the way she’s performing and all the potential we see, she’s just a very good player for us.
On the disappointment of not being able to defend the trophy…
So, we wanted to stay active in four competitions that are out of one of them. So, there’s three left still and we’re chasing prizes this year.
On how she expects the team to respond to the loss…
Because if I’ve seen them respond after the Chelsea game, they stay together, they reflect, they go internally and do things we can control. And I’m expecting them to do it again today. I think the hard part is that we felt that we were so close and there was extra time on its way in and all of a sudden that goal is there and we can’t do much. But, yeah, it is what it is. That’s football.
On how Chloe Kelly has looked in training…
It’s just a couple of days. I think it’s always interesting to see a player over a long time. But just these days she’s been, like I mentioned before, I think you see her qualities, you see her work rate. So, I think she as a person also gives us a very good impression and I think she’s going to be a great addition to the team.
I was surprised by how often long balls in behind for Stina to run on to worked but unfortunately City looked much more dangerous in our penalty box than we did in theirs overall. We were lucky they didn’t score more goals if you consider the quality of their attacks throughout the game. Also City looked much more sharp and energetic in the first half than us which left me wondering if they didn’t catch whatever illness our men’s team had in their cup semifinal.