Renée Slegers is looking forward to tasting the atmosphere at Emirates Stadium in Saturday’s north London derby.
It’s a 5.30pm kick-off against Tottenham Hotspur in the Barclays Women’s Super League and there are plenty of reasons for supporters to arrive early.
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Asked how exciting this occasion will be in her pre-match press conference on Friday, our head coach said: “We look forward to it. We’ve been talking to the players about connecting with the crowd and starting in the warm-up because they’re going to help us in the game.
“We want to bring something to them, so that connection is really important for us. The earlier people can be at the stadium, the better, so we can share this occasion and make the very, very best out of this tomorrow.”
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Every word of Renée’s pre-Spurs press conference
One reporter at the Sobha Realty Training Centre asked Renée about the momentum we have with us at the moment, having won 10 games in a row in all competitions with Tuesday’s 3-1 victory at home to Chelsea in the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-finals.
“Every game is a game in itself,” she replied. “We have to keep on doing what we’re doing and fuel ourselves with the belief that we have and all the things that we’re doing at the moment that are contributing to our performances and results.
“There’s a lot of big and small things that we’re consistently doing at a high level. That’s what we’re pushing and we want to keep on improving. This is another game, so everything that we’ve done before won’t count in this game.
“We’re going to attack this game together with the supporters. At the moment I think around 45,000 to 47,000 tickets have been sold. We’ll be there together with the supporters and we’ll be shoulder to shoulder. We want to give them everything we possibly can and they will give it back because this is a very special game. I think it will be a very special occasion at Emirates tomorrow.”
It’s the old cliche that form can go out of the window on derby day, and that’s what Spurs will be hoping for following back to back defeats to Manchester City and Everton.
“We want to bring what we always want to bring; our basics, our foundation of who we are, we want to bring that to every single game,” Renée continued. “Yes, there’s something special about this game. We have to play the occasion and use the occasion.
“But we are so strong because we are very much in control and in our controlled middle, task-focused and in the present. That’s what’s bringing us good performances at the moment. That’s what we want to bring tomorrow as well.”
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