Arsenal’s Lia Wälti addressed the media on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the Gunners’ commencing their trip to Germany, where they’ll open their 2024/25 UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage campaign against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
The Swiss international praised Arsenal’s qualities and insisted that their clash at the FC Bayern Campus has the potential to be “a new opportunity” for the North London side following a drab display against Everton on Sunday.
What did Lia Wälti say?
There’s a lot riding on Wednesday’s result for Arsenal, following a less-than-convincing start to the season that has sparked intense debate amongst the club’s fanbase. That’s been exacerbated by a 0-0 draw with Everton, which has seen the Gunners slump to sixth in the Barclays Women’s Super League table.
“After games like that, you just want to play again and show that you can do it better,” Wälti told reporters on Tuesday afternoon, before going on to add that “that’s the positive thing about these quick turnarounds.“
“There’s a new opportunity tomorrow because football is a quick business and things change in every moment so I think we can turn it around tomorrow.”
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Swiss midfielder is confident that, despite those sub-par domestic performances, Arsenal “have the quality to be competing” in the UEFA Women’s Champions League and that’s there’s no better way to start their group stage campaign than a trip to the reigning German champions.
“I think that’s exactly who we want to be measured against,” she suggested, emphasising that the team “know we have the quality to compete with these teams and go pretty far in the competition.”
Arsenal get their UEFA Women’s Champions League campaign underway at 17:45 BST on Wednesday, 9 October 2024. The match will be shown live in the United Kingdom by DAZN, with extensive coverage also available on FromTheSpot.
