THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal travel to Leuven for match day six of the Champions League group phase with their passage into the knockout stages guaranteed. However, this game is no dead rubber, while it would take a very unlikely combination of results elsewhere, as well as an Arsenal win, to win a place in the top four and automatic progression to the quarter-finals, the higher the Gunners finish the greater the likelihood of a favourable draw in the round of 16.
Meanwhile, the home team are currently 12th place in the standings which is the last qualifying place for the knockouts. A win guarantees them a place in the round of 16, a draw gives them a fighting chance. While the Swiss model, in its inaugural season in the Women’s Champions League, can muddy the picture a little it does tend to provide clarity and jeopardy on the final match day.
Arsenal have built up a head of steam recently with four straight wins and look a little like their old selves, even if the opposition they have faced during that run has been opposition they would expect to beat. However, Slegers and her staff have made some tactical tweaks in recent games that are bearing some fruit.
With games against Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea, as well as the Champions Cup, early in the New Year, continuing to build momentum and positivity going into the winter break will be critical for Arsenal. As defending champions, the Gunners will also want to finish as high as possible in the table.
TEAM NEWS
Frida Maanum returns to the squad after missing the game against Everton, but Jenna Nighswonger is out. She joins Manu Zinsberger (ACL), Daphne van Domselaar (quad), Chloe Kelly (knee) and Katie Reid (knee) on the sidelines.
Available squad
Goalkeepers: 28.Borbe 53.Liddiard
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 24.Hinds 44.Harwood
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little(c) 12.L.Maanum 21.Pelova 32.Cooney-Cross 67.Rose-Brodie
Forwards: 9.Mead 15.Smith 18.Kelly 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘They are in the knockout spots at the moment. But I think the next team is on four points. If they win, they’ll have to go for points as well. Like I just said, we have a starting point, but then anything can change during the game for both teams.
They’re interesting because they are very disciplined in everything they do.
‘They defend in certain areas, but they also have the ability to change things in-game. They can go higher, they can go lower. They have quite some depth in the squad, so they can make changes that will change the game for them. So there are a lot of different scenarios for the game tomorrow.
‘You see, in the Champions League, it’s just a small data set, but the first half has looked different from the second half so far, and only those five games, maybe four games, apart from the Barcelona game, which plays out differently. But it’s going to be an interesting game with a lot of different scenarios, like we just said, and a team that can change in-game as well.’
LAST TIME OUT
The teams have never met before but on match day five, Arsenal beat Twente 1-0 at Meadow Park and Leuven drew 0-0 away at Paris Saint Germain.
THE OPPOSITION
So far in the group phase, the Belgians have drawn away at FC Paris, won at home to Twente, lost 3-0 away at Barcelona, drawn at home to Roma and drawn away at Paris Saint Germain. Only Barca have been able to defeat them and they have taken four points at home in the group phase.
Leuven are a young side, only 31-year-old midfielder Julie Biesmans is the only outfield player over 24 years old. Arno Van Den Abbeel’s side currently lead the Super League by two points ahead of Anderlecht and this is their first ever crack at the Champions League. Leuven share a chairman with Leicester City (Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha) as part of King Power’s business empire.
In their 0-0 draw against PSG, Leuven defended in a very narrow shape but jumped out when PSG’s wing-backs got the ball near the touchline. They also adopted a player for player pressing system in the front line, forcing PSG to go long in the build up and I would expect a similar approach from them here.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Alessia Russo has four goals in the first five group games in this competition and she will look to add to that tally in Belgium. Slegers has made a small tweak in recent weeks of asking Beth Mead to move in from the right touchline and play as a second 10. I believe that, in part, this is about reducing some of Russo’s workload in deeper positions.
After the Twente game, Slegers said, ‘We were always thinking that her touches should be in the box tonight and we did a little bit different with more players between the lines and keeping her more central, to be able to finish from there and let the others combine between the lines so her touches should be in the box.’
Against Everton, that model persisted and Russo had eight shots on goal with Mead and Russo taking care of the creative work behind her. At times this season it has felt like Russo has had to set the table and then cook the dinner in the attacking sense, this feels like a move aimed, at least partially, at keeping Russo higher up the pitch and in positions where she can shoot.
MY PREDICTED LINE-UP
Subs: 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 12.L.Maanum 19.Foord 21.Pelova 24.Hinds 25.Blackstenius 44.Harwood 53.Liddiard
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The match kicks off at 8pm on Wednesday evening at the Den Dreef Stadium and will be shown live on Disney+ in the UK. Full listings of where you can watch the game globally are available here.
COMING UP
We will have the team news post around 70 minutes before kickoff, as well as Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report. We will also have every word from Renee Slegers’ post-match press conference on the site around an hour after full-time, while we will aim to speak to a player in the mixed zone too.
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