Eidevall: It’s “Very important” Arsenal Women win tonight against Zurich in UWCL by Michelle
Arsenal take on Zurich tonight at wefox Arena in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. This is Matchday 6, the final Matchday of the UEFA Women’s Champions League Group stages of the tournament and Arsenal’s final game of 2022 before they head into their much-needed winter break.
Head Coach Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press ahead of tonight’s game, saying that a win tonight is Very important.
Arsenal have already secured their qualification to the Quarter Finals of the competitions, but things in their Group C are going down to the wire in terms of who qualifies between Lyon and Juventus tonight – a win for either of them tonight would ensure their qualification to the Quarter Finals. For our Gunners we need to secure a strong win against Zurich tonight to ensure maximum points and maximum goal difference if we are to remain top of our Group, and get ourselves in the best possible position for the Quarter Finals.
That’s why it’s important that we finish number one in the group. said Eidevall on Arsenal.com. There are a lot of things that are important. I think Leah said it well: you are in a competition, you want to have as many advantages as possible in that competition when you reach the quarter-final stage. There are going to be eight brilliant teams there, but of course, we want to go there as number one if that’s possible.
It’s also important to not come to the quarter-finals with too many yellow cards – we experienced that against Wolfsburg last season. It was really difficult for us, coming in to play those games there with so many players getting close to suspensions. We have managed that part much, much better. We’ve had much better discipline, both players but also me – remember, no yellow cards this season! So not only have players improved, but also me. It’s important that continues tomorrow, so first we need to win; second, we need to try and keep where we are at with our yellow cards; and then we’ll be heading to the quarter-finals in very good conditions.
And Eidevall on what he is expecting from Zurich tonight:
Their results maybe tell another story than their performances. I think we’ve seen, both against Lyon and Juventus, that they’ve created some really, really good opportunities in those games. They’re a tactically flexible team – they can play with two forwards or they can play with one forward. A lot of the time, that changes between which phase they’re in. It’s an opponent we have a lot of respect for, especially here at their home ground – the artificial turf. We need to make a strong performance in order to get the result we want.
The story of Arsenal’s 2022-23 season so far has been on of injuries, at one point Eidevall had a choice of only 15 of his first team squad due to injury. Leah Williamson and Rafaelle Souza have both returned to active duty recently and Lina Hurtig and Kim Little returned to the squad last week. However, Eidevall has 3 players out of action for the long term due to ACL ruptures including Teyah Goldie, Beth Mead in November and only last week Vivianne Miedema was added to that injury list.
Hopefully, Arsenal can do what they’ve been doing all season so far and rise to the challenge after the loss of such significant teammates.
The match kicks off at 17:45 (UK) tonight and you can watch all the action live on DAZN Youtube Channel.
Come on you Gunners!
Michelle Maxwell
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