Arsenal boss Renee Slegers believes her facet should be able to tackle Benfica’s “psychological presence” once they face off within the Girls’s Champions League.
The reigning champions have been unable to start out their title defence with a win, falling to a 2-1 defeat at residence to Lyon, however Benfica additionally misplaced 2-1 of their marketing campaign opener to Juventus.
Arsenal have misplaced simply certainly one of their final six away video games within the group stage of the Champions League (W4 D1), and have discovered the again of the web at the very least as soon as in every of their earlier 9 such matches; Roma (10) and Brann (three) are the one different groups to attain in each away sport at this stage of the competitors.
Nonetheless, Benfica are unbeaten of their final three residence video games within the group stage of the Champions League (W2 D1), having 4 of their six earlier such video games within the competitors (W1 D1).
Slegers insisted her Arsenal group should put together correctly for an “intense” battle in entrance of a probably hostile crowd on the Estadio da Luz.
“I’ve performed in opposition to them a few years in the past,” stated Slegers in her pre-match press convention. “They’re a really aggressive and intense group to play in opposition to.
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— Arsenal Girls (@ArsenalWFC) October 15, 2025
“They’ve a psychological presence, if I can say so. So they are going to be intense from that perspective as effectively. I feel they consider in what they’re doing.
“We’re going to play on the huge stadium, we’re going to have a crowd. We even have followers coming, which is nice.
“So we anticipate a variety of depth within the sport, which we need to match and all the time need to deliver as effectively, and we need to take care of it in a great way and create management within the sport for ourselves.
“They are going to be aggressive on us, they may put stress on us, and we’ll need to be composed and well-positioned and have good technical element to play away that stress.
“So, we anticipate a tough sport, a really totally different sport from the sport in opposition to Lyon. However we sit up for the problem.”
Arsenal have by no means confronted Benfica within the Champions League. Actually, this would be the first time the Gunners have come up in opposition to Portuguese opposition within the competitors.
