Renée Slegers has got her players working towards the same outcome to last season, as we tackled Lyon in the UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-finals.
We trailed the French champions 2-1 on aggregate after the first leg at home in 2024/25, before producing an incredible comeback, winning 4-1 overseas to advance to the final.
That never say die attitude was a real theme of last season’s campaign, but we’ve shown this season that we’re capable of progressing in different ways as well.
“Last year was last year, this year is this year,” our head coach said in her pre-match press conference on Friday. “The set-up of the competition has changed and a lot of things have changed since then.
“I think for us, for them, I think we still have the same identity. I think they have their style of play, we have our style of play. By coincidence or by chance, we’re in the exact same position again in the semi-final playing against each other, first at home and the second one away. But with that being said, that was last year, everything is different this year.
“I think what we’ve shown last year, both against Real Madrid and Lyon, was that we could turn it around when we needed to. So we showed some really strong mental resilience. I think this year, for example, if you look at the Chelsea games, the quarter-finals, it was the other way around. So it’s both very challenging.
“It is going to be challenging for both teams trying to win, getting to the final across two legs. It’s going to be challenging, but we embrace the challenge. We look forward to it. But yes, like I said, everything will be different this time around.”
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Every word of Renée’s pre-Lyon press conference
One reporter at the press conference reminded Renée of a question last season, when he brought up Jose Mourinho’s quote about football heritage. In relation to that, he asked if having our men’s and women’s teams both getting to semi-finals consistently can change the DNA of the club.
“What we try to do and being in touch with the men’s side at times as well, my main contact is Albert (Stuivenberg), the assistant coach, but we’re constantly trying to learn and I think learning from successes is important as well because I think there’s often a lot of focus on learning from losses and learning from failure, but I think learning from success is so important and that’s what we’ve tried to do and we’ve had successful periods,” Renée explained.
“What is it that made us successful and trying to understand that, knowing that we can’t copy-paste it into the future but there’s certain things that we definitely can bring and I know how in the way they work they’re also very reflective and always looking for the details and the margins and it’s been really inspiring to be at this club with both the men’s team and us now getting far, but you have to keep this mindset otherwise, if you stop, you’ll be mediocre, so everyone has to keep on going.
“At the moment, of course, very proud to be part of Arsenal and both teams being in the semi-finals.”
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