Renée Slegers admitted that her Arsenal side will need to “have a look at if there are even more specific things we can do in the final third to create bigger chances” after the Gunners succumbed to a 1-2 loss against Olympique Lyonnais in the first leg of their UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final at Emirates Stadium.
Kadidiatou Diani slotted the opener past Manuela Zinsberger with just 15 minutes played, but under controversial circumstances, the Gunners were able to drag themselves level with 78 minutes on the clock when a VAR review – that no Arsenal player appeared to have asked for – found that Leah Williamson had been clipped by Christiane Endler inside the box.
“We did really well finally getting the equaliser,” Slegers explained in her post-match press conference, “and that was the least we wanted. After that goal, we felt like we could potentially score another one. So I think as the game turned out, especially in the second half, a draw or a win was what we went for.”
It sparked the 40,045-strong crowd at Emirates Stadium into life, though they were silenced just four minutes later when Melchie Dumornay – who’d rattled the woodwork with an audacious lob from 30 yards out in the first half – capped off a blistering counter-attack to restore the visitors’ lead.
The result leaves Arsenal chasing a one-goal deficit ahead of next week’s second leg, with Slegers hoping that flashbacks of the Gunners‘ 5-1 victory in Lyon two years ago remain fresh in the memory of the players.
“Not too much from a tactical point of view, but definitely from a psychological point of view and knowing that if you go there, you can do something. And Arsenal’s done it before, and won 5-1. But yeah, this is going to be a different scenario. Of course, Lyon are happy with the 2-1 here, and they will do everything they can to protect that lead. So it’s going to be a very difficult game, but we’re going to go there and believe that we can do something,” the former Dutch international explained.