Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall says that his side need to remain humble after last week’s historic 5-1 victory over Lyon in their opening match of this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League’s group stage.
The Gunners take on Swiss club FC Zürich in their second group match at The Emirates Stadium this evening. Arsenal are the favourites to win the match given the fact that their opponents are seen as the rank outsiders of the group.
Arsenal’s emphatic victory over the European champions on Matchday 1 arguably raised expectations but Eidevall wants his side to stay humble as they look to take another step towards qualification from their group.
“For us to play one really good game away to Lyon, get a great result and to start speaking about us winning the whole competition, I don’t like that,” Eidevall said. “I don’t think that’s humble enough, that’s not where we come from. We’re still at a place where we know we’re a very good football team but we need to work extremely hard to develop in order to fulfil our potential as a team.
“That power and obligation from history, we know that there are so many great football players and managers that have put our club in the position it is in today. We are so determined to try and leave this club in an even better place than we came to it.”
Eidevall didn’t commit to highlighting what Arsenal can achieve in Europe this year, his side are simply taking things game-by-game and preparing well.
He said “We go game-by-game, we try to apply ourselves as good as possible for every game to make things really simple, that’s what we do. What potential ceilings do we have? Well, we’ll have to find out but if we do 100% both in preparation and execution, we don’t have to regret anything and I think when you do that, nights like that can happen in Lyon. It’s not a guarantee, but it can happen and it was beautiful to be a part of. We have to keep working and keep having that mindset and focus and maybe it can happen again.”
Arsenal’s UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage match against FC Zurich kicks-off at 8pm this evening. Tickets remain on-sale and can be purchased by clicking here.