Renée: “We have to earn the right again” | News

We go into this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final second leg away to Lyon with a 2-1 lead on aggregate, the opposite of the score we had to turn around last season.

So Renée Slegers is keen to make sure there’s no complacency among the squad as we look to protect or extend our lead over the French champions and book our place in back-to-back finals.

“It’s very simple, I think you can’t compare the two occasions,” she said in her pre-match press conference. “Everything is different this year, the scenario is different as well, last time we were 2-1 down, now we’re 2-1 up, so everything is different.

“We have to earn the right again from the very start, so I don’t compare the two occasions. Yes we’ve been to the city, yes I recognise this hall and the pitch, that will be there, but we have to start all over again tomorrow.”

It was pointed out that Lyon have a couple of key players returning though, with Melchie Dumornay and Selma Bacha both back in contention for their squad on Saturday.

“I think if you look at it in teams, it’s two really strong squads going against each other, so you’ll have players starting and you’ll have players finishing, and we’ll see how both teams are going to manage that tomorrow, but of course, Melchie and Selma are very strong players for them,” our head coach added.

Asked how much she’s enjoying this season, and what the confidence is like among the squad, Renée continued: “I enjoyed it last season as well! Well I enjoy my role, I understand I’m very privileged to be part of Arsenal, working with these players for this club with these values and competing with the best team so I enjoyed last year.

“Even though of course you don’t have joy and pleasures constantly, you have to work really hard but I try to enjoy the moment as much as possible, enjoy the work, enjoy all the moments that we go through. Last year was great, this year has brought a lot to us as well.

“There’s been fantastic times and there’s always times that are more challenging but look at where we are now and I’ve learned to live in the moment and enjoy the moment as much as possible so I’m doing that at the moment sitting here, and I’ll do that tomorrow when the game has been played.

“The squad is great at the moment but I think one of our big strengths is that we know who we are, we know our strengths, we know what we’re about, how we want to do things and I think that’s part of building belief and confidence.

“Another big strength of ours is the humility of how we do things and we stay grounded through all the scenarios and respect what we have, who we are, we respect ourselves, we respect the opponents, the competitions we compete in, so I think that’s our big strength and the group is in a good place.

“We know the challenge that’s ahead of us tomorrow, we play against a very strong team, we want to bring our best game as well tomorrow and we look forward to it.”