Frida Maanum talks Lyon, the Champions League & Christmas

Frida Maanum talks Lyon, the Champions League & Christmas by Michelle

Arsenal focus on one of their first-team Women’s players in each edition of their Matchday Programme.  The programme for Arsenal v Lyon at Emirates tonight, 8pm kick-off, has a full interview with Arsenal midfielder and Norway international player Frida Maanum.  Frida was voted Arsenal’s October Player of the Month by fans and has also been nominated for November.

In October, in Arsenal’s first group game in their Champions League campaign they played away at Lyon, winning by an incredible 5 goals to Lyon’s single goal.  Brilliant highlights of that game here:

Arsenal welcome Lyon to Emirates Stadium tonight for their penultimate 2nd leg group match, before heading to Zurich on 21st December in their final group C match, before everyone heads into the winter break.

Lyon are the reigning European Champions but are not in great form at the moment, largely due to a long list of injuries.  They may struggle to qualify for the competition proper if they cannot take points away from our Gunners in tonight’s game.  Frida thinks we can do even better this time around saying:  Looking ahead to this game against Lyon at the Emirates, we have to build on our performance in the away fixture. The 5-1 win against them in the first leg was very good from our side, and although this is a completely different game, we shouldn’t disregard that amazing result. We can still do even better, even against the reigning champions.

Focusing on the Champions League as a whole Frida oozes enthusiasm saying: Not every team qualifies for the Champions League so it’s always a special competition to play in. We get to play brand new opponents so it’s hugely different to facing Everton or Chelsea that we know quite well at this point. I find it fascinating to meet new players and new teams that force you to adapt. The Champions League makes you learn a lot, quickly.

Maanum, along with the rest of the Arsenal squad, management and support team we’re sure, is really looking forward to playing Arsenal’s final Champions League group game in Zurich then jetting home for Xmas, saying: After our final group game against Zurich, I’m finally going home to Norway. Back to the snow land for Christmas! Us Norwegians celebrate on December 24th but my family’s traditions probably still sound pretty familiar: we always watch Christmas movies on the day, go for a walk together and then in the evening, it’s time for a traditional Norwegian Christmas meal.

Seeing my family again for the holidays will be so nice because I spend so much of the year travelling. We all need that time for ourselves to properly switch off, and I’m looking forward to coming back to Arsenal with new energy in the new year!

Tickets for tomorrow night’s match at Emirates Stadium are still available to purchase here.

Michelle Maxwell

Follow Michelle on Just Gooner Women on Twitter for regular updates on the Arsenal Women’s Team!

Do you want to read more about the Arsenal Women’s Team? Click here….

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