UWCL Preview: Arsenal v Valerenga | Match preview | News
UEFA Women's Champions League football is finally back at Emirates Stadium as we face Valerenga tonight in N5.
An opening-round loss to Bayern Munich means our squad has work to do to recover in the competition's group stage. The last UWCL fixture played at Emirates Stadium was our 2023 semi-final against Wolfsburg, which ended in a valiant extra-time loss.
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the state of playFollowing Jonas Eidevall's departure on Tuesday morning, Renee Slegers has taken charge of our squad as interim coach. She previously occupied the position of assistant coach.
This will not be the first match Slegers has spent in the dugout. She held the reins alongside Aaron D'Antino for last season's 5-0 win over Bristol City, whilst Eidevall was serving a touchline ban.
Last week's painful loss to Bayern Munich means we are currently bottom of Group C, but with five matches still to play, there is still ample opportunity to turn our fate around.
Meanwhile, Valerenga were narrowly beaten at home by Juventus last week, as Sofia Cantore's well-taken strike was the only difference between the two sides on the night.
OUR OPPONENTSThis season marks Valerenga's first in the UEFA Women's Champions League group stages, having defeated Farul Constanta and Anderlecht to qualify. Before the group stage format was introduced, the Norwegian side reached the round of 32 in 2020/21 only to be knocked out on penalties by Brondby.
They are the reigning champions of the Toppserien, pipping our previous opponents Rosenborg by a single point in 2023. This season, Valerenga have further asserted their dominance in the league, holding a nine-point lead with just four matches yet to play. Norwegian winger Karina Sævik is currently second in the league's top scorer rankings with 11 goals.
FACTS AND STATS This will be the first-ever UEFA Women’s Champions League meeting between Arsenal and Valerenga. Before facing Rosenborg in this year's qualifiers, we had never faced a Norwegian side in the UWCL We lost our most recent Champions League home match at Emirates Stadium (a 2-3 semi-final defeat to VfL Wolfsburg in May 2023) but our side has never lost back-to-back home games in the competition Valerenga lost possession more than any other team in the opening round of the group stages (157), whilst our Gunners conceded possession the fewest times of any side last week (111) Valerenga drew their only previous away match in the Champions League (1-1 v Brøndby IF in February 2021). Collectively, Norwegian teams have won six of their last 13 away UWCL fixtures WHAT THE MANAGERS SAYSlegers on the tie: "I'm looking forward to fine-tuning these small margins, because I think it's been about small margins, and that's what I look forward to getting on the right side of it. So, putting in a couple of extra percentages, as a staff, as a players group, and then getting things over the line and turning things around, that's what I look forward to."
TEAM NEWSIn her pre-match press conference, Renee Slegers confirmed that Lina Hurtig is back in contention: “She’s been working hard for a long time to come back.”
Victoria Pelova continues her ACL rehab at Sobha Realty Training Centre and Amanda Ilestedt is on maternity leave.
match officialsReferee: Marta Huerta De AzaAssistant referees: Guadalupe Porras Ayuso and Iragartze Fernandez EsesumagaFourth officials: Ainara Acevedo
HOW TO WATCHThere are still tickets available for tonight's fixture at Emirates Stadium, which kicks off at 8pm.
Live coverage of the match will be hosted on TNT Sports 1 and discovery+ in the UK.
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