THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal play at home to OH Leuven in the second leg of their Round of 16 Champions League playoff tie with a healthy 4-0 lead in their back pockets. Goals from Olivia Smith, Alessia Russo and a Frida Maanum brace gave the Gunners a lead to take back to Boreham Wood which ought to be insurmountable.
Leuven coach Arno Van Den Abbeel said after the first leg his time would be ‘playing in the Champions League for the last time this season’ in this fixture. That certainly should be the case and it will be interesting to see how Renee Slegers shuffles her starting pack for this game.
The Gunners rotated for the first leg with Emily Fox only playing 45 minutes, Wubben-Moy, Catley, Little and Russo all starting on the bench on that occasion. That rotation was in anticipation of a WSL away game at Brighton on Sunday that eventually fell foul to the weather. With an FA Cup tie at home to Bristol City this coming Sunday, there isn’t a great need to rest players.
The next two games will likely be about game sharing for players and a good opportunity for players who have been on the fringes, like Laia Codina and Victoria Pelova to stake their claims, while Kyra Cooney-Cross can build fitness ahead of the Asia Cup. Really, this ought to be an uneventful and pressure free occasion at Meadow Park.
TEAM NEWS
Beth Mead (shin) and Stina Blackstenius (calf) remain out, but Taylor Hinds returns from a foot injury. Anneke Borbe also returns from concussion. Katie Reid, Michelle Agyemang and Manu Zinsberger are all out with ACL injuries, Olivia Smith is suspended.
Available squad
Goalkeepers: 13.Votikova 14.van Domselaar 28.Borbe 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 24.Hinds 31.Holmberg 44.Harwood
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little 12.L.Maanum 21.Pelova 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 18.Kelly 19.Foord 23.Russo
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘I don’t know what Leuven are saying in their camp and what success means for them in this game, we will see. In their league games they tend to play a little higher with higher pressure and they are aggressive, so let’s see if they want to do that tomorrow. That is one option we see for them, let’s see whether they go more direct and look for counter-attacks.
‘There are a couple of options for them to explore but that is not my camp, Arsenal is my camp and we are looking at what we want to bring to the game and our potential scenarios like we have been doing really well as a team. There is always an unknown going into a game but we will focus on what we can control.
‘We want to keep as many players as possible active for us, and I think that’s what we’ve done really well this block so far. We have two more games left to play before the international break and we want to optimise the squad.’
LAST TIME OUT
In the first leg, Arsenal were 4-0 winners in Belgium with goals from Olivia Smith, Alessia Russo and a brace from Frida Maanum.
THE OPPOSITION
Asked how Leuven could make sure they were competing at this level again next season, coach Arno van den Abbeel said, ‘First things first we need to win the league and qualify, so let’s make sure we win our league. We also need to look at who we are able to keep over the summer, the downside of getting this far in the Champions League is that there will be interest in some of our players.
‘We need to look into who we can keep, add quality players and make sure we can compete. Then we need to look at how we work, maybe how much we train, what we can tweak in our programmes to perform even better. We need more attention for our competition and more attention for the professionalism of our clubs.
‘The main job would also be qualifying in the preliminary rounds, that is not so easy. We played six games to get into the League Phase so it has already been an exhausting and busy season, we are not used to that. We need to win the league and then look at how we stay competitive in Europe.’
PLAYER TO WATCH
Victoria Pelova has found her opportunities limited this season with Mariona and Kim Little firmly established as the midfield double pivot and with Russo and Maanum ahead of her in the reckoning for the number 10 role, I think there is very little doubt that Pelova is in her final months as an Arsenal player with her contract expiring at the end of the season.
However, there are a lot of games left this season and with injuries taking hold and the Asia Cup on the horizon, Pelova remains a key player for this campaign and she will be needed. It is likely that she will start this game in midfield again so that either Little or Mariona can be rested.
With Cooney-Cross likely to be absent for the Asia Cup, that pushes Pelova up the pecking order, so this game (and possibly the Bristol City game) as well as the first leg gives the Dutch midfielder a rare opportunity to stack some games and remind supporters and the coach of the player we saw prior to her ACL injury.
PREDICTED LINE UP
Subs: 3.Wubben-Moy 7.Catley 8.Mariona 11.McCabe 13.Votikova 24.Hinds 28.Borbe 32.Cooney-Cross 44.Harwood
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at Meadow Park at 8pm on Wednesday evening. The game will be broadcast live on Disney +. Full global listings for the game can be found here.
COMING UP
We will have the team lineups posted around an hour before kickoff, Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report and we will have every word of Renee Slegers’ post match press conference around an hour after full-time.
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