Following Arsenal Women’s stunning 5-1 victory over Lyon, a few players stopped in the mixed zone for a chat. A compendium of their quotes. Starting with centre-half Lotte Wubben-Moy.
Lotte on the feeling in the dressing room…
It’s a surreal feeling really, a lot went right for us tonight. Even during the game you could see that with every minute that went by, we were getting more confident. It shows that we’re a together team.
Lotte on Frida Maanum’s player of the match performance…
My smile says it all, I am unbelievably proud of her. I see her every day in training and how hard she works, this is the thing for us younger players, when you are given the opportunity you just have to take it. She took it and ran with it and scored a sweet goal as well.
Lotte on her nascent centre-half partnership with Steph Catley…
Across the whole back line we were very disciplined, communication wise we were good, shifting and making early movements so we could support one another. It was like clockwork. Full credit to Steph for coming in and stepping into a role she is not as used to. Defensively it was a really, really solid performance from the whole team.
On the difference from a year ago when Arsenal began their UWCL campaign with a 4-0 reverse at Barcelona…
We were just reflecting on that in the dressing room just now- what a difference a year makes! You can tell how much we’re building and the confidence we have now and we are growing game by game. But it is one game, we know Liverpool will be formidable opponents on Sunday and we have to bring our best again.
We also chatted to Caitlin Foord.
Caitlin on the performance…
Everyone stepped up tonight and played to a world class level, the result showed that, we are really pleased with the result.
Caitlin on the mental approach to the game…
The mentality for us was just to come and want to play one of the best teams in the world. We had that mentality going in but as the game went on we just got more confident. We started to play more freely and that’s why the goals kept coming and you could see that we all really enjoyed it out there.
Caitlin on starting last season’s campaign with a 4-0 defeat at Barca…
We had a lot of learnings to take from that game. We like to be in control of the ball but we know we have to pick our moments to go forward and be more patient, that’s what we did tonight. We play our best when we have the ball but we didn’t try to attack every single time we had it, we kept it a bit and picked our moments at the right times and I think that’s what you saw tonight. This is huge for our confidence, I said before the game this would be huge for our confidence if we could get a result and we want to take that into the league now as well.
Caitlin on her form this year…
I’m honestly just really enjoying myself, I play my best football when I am having fun, I love walking out onto the pitch with these girls. I love being here and I love joining up with my national team as well and playing with my friends who I play against a lot.
We also spoke to Kim Little
Kim on what the result means for Arsenal…
It was a great day for us, our game plan was very good and we executed it really well. Credit to the team for turning up and playing this way, especially against a team like Lyon, who are so dominant. I am really proud of the girls tonight.
Kim on overcoming a mental barrier by beating Lyon…
In a way, yes. We are always striving to be better and to make progress, we want to be up there competing with the best teams in Europe. We’ve not been able to do that as much as we would have liked in the past. It’s only the first game of the group stage, it’s very early on in the tournament but it’s just pleasing to get that start.
Kim on being clinical in front of goal…
We were very clinical tonight, on Sunday we had over 20 shots and only scored one goal, we knew we needed to improve on that and tonight we did that. That’s just football! Each game is so different and Europe is a very different challenge to playing domestically, each game is just so different. Our approach was very good and we really executed it today.
Kim on the team’s confidence growing during the game…
We had some really good moments but we were also really compact as a team, we knew that at any moment Lyon can score because of their strengths. We stayed compact but we were also able to put pressure on the ball and make them make mistakes. There was a really good balance in our game.
Proud of these ladies, job excellently done! COYG!
This is one hell of a statement win. The proof of progress will ultimately be how they eventually fair against Barcelona, of course, who just beat Benfica 9-0. Just as with the men, this Arsenal team does feel like a different beast so far. The fear factor is back.
All women’s European champions league matches are available free, live streamed on YouTube by DAZN, with no zone restrictions. I think this had been made clear on arseblog.news
Very true mate. I watched it from Kenya. It was very entertaining. Loved that Foord second goal. Magnificent
I’m not surprised by the sensational performance whilst the actual result I guess is more than anybody could have expected. We now have a squad of top class players who are jelling together beautifully, plus a very clever manager who is clearly a great motivator and tactician. The front 3 were superb last night, Stina leading the line brilliantly whilst Caitlyn & Beth were both explosive on the ball. Kim was immense once again, especially her sublime through ball for the first goal, whilst the contributions of Laura and Frida were also immense, both players truly showing their value to… Read more »
It’s wonderful to see the younger contingent of Lotte, Frida, and Laura play so well all in the same match. They all look so much more confident now.
Arsenal ladies take a fucking bow!
Amazing how we play when we are not getting kicked off the field…AKA Wolfsburg / Chelsea / Ajax
Why does it keep saying 4-0? We lost 4-1 to Barcelona in the opening game last season with Maanum scoring. I keep reading 4-0 from the author. That was the reverse fixture at the Emirates.
Seems like everyone has forgotten about Frida Maanum’s goal away at Barcelona. the score was 4-1, not 4-0
Not about the subject matter and lve asked this question before but why is there always a ‘thumbs down’ on every comment what ever it is?
Is there a spuds fan infiltrating Arsblog?