On Saturday, Arsenal will face Rosenborg in a winner-takes-all qualification clash for a berth in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
It was at this stage that the Gunners suffered an early elimination from Europe’s elite club competition last season, and during his pre-match press conference at the Sobha Realty Training Centre, Jonas Eidevall expressed that “we know we’re going to play against a top opponent.”
What did Jonas Eidevall say?
The first qualifying round of the UEFA Women’s Champions League features a rather unconventional mini-tournament, held this year at Arsenal’s Meadow Park. After Rosenborg’s penalty shootout victory over Atletico Madrid in the first of Wednesday’s semi-finals, the Gunners completed a stunning demolition of Rangers to qualify for Saturday’s showpiece.
“I think you can see from the way we played against Rangers how much it means for us to be playing in Europe,” explained Eidevall during Friday’s pre-match press conference.
“It was a great start, the players were excellent, collected and alert from the first kick of the game, on and off the ball. The team maintained that standard throughout the whole game which is sometimes a difficult thing to do in football.”
Embed from Getty ImagesAtletico Madrid were widely viewed as the favourites ahead of their semi-final defeat, and reflecting on what Arsenal should expect from Rosenborg on Saturday, Eidevall commented: “They beat a really strong opponent that demands a lot of respect. We saw them as really strong on set-pieces, really organised and they’ve a really good culture within the team.”
“They handled really adverse moments and situations against Atletico with a focus on what they can control. We know we’re going to play against a tough opponent and that’s how the Champions League should be.”
“It was apparent when I watched the game that Rosenborg didn’t only have one idea for the whole game,” he added. “They had a lot of different micro-moments during the game, changing their line of engagement and their tactics in terms of how they were playing out from goal kicks. It’s a good way of changing momentum as a team and you could feel that they were doing that with a clear and structured way. I’d expect nothing less tomorrow… it worked last time, so we need to be at our very best.”