Arsenal Women are unchanged from Wednesday night's 6-0 win over Glasgow Rangers with the exception of Beth Mead being back on the bench after nursing a slight groin strain over the last fortnight. This means Manu Zinsberger starts in goal with a back four of Emily Fox, Leah Williamson, Laia Codina and Katie McCabe. Kyra Cooney-Cross and Kim Little are in the midfield double pivot behind Frida Maanum.
Caitlin Foord starts on the right with Mariona Caldentey on the left, though expect those two to swap flanks during the game. Alessia Russo starts upfront.
The Gunners take on the Norwegian side at the Mangata Pay UK Stadium Meadow Park on Saturday evening. The winners of the tie will progress to Round 2. While Arsenal cruised to a 6-0 victory over Rangers in their semi-final tie, Rosenborg needed to battle to the bitter end to dump Atlético Madrid out of the competition on penalties. The Spaniards were arguably the favourites going into that tie but Rosenborg managed the big moments well, something which impressed Arsenal boss Eidevall
“They beat a really strong opponent and that demands a lot of respect,” Eidevall said when speaking in the pre-match press conference. “We saw them as a team be very strong on set-pieces, they were really well-organised and you could see that they have a really good culture within the team. They were handling really adverse situations and moments against Atlético. They are good at focusing on what they can control.
“We are going to play against a good opponent which is how the Champions League should be; it should be tough games, tough challenges. It’s how we want to play in the Champions League because we want to play against the best.
“We focus on our performance and if we can do well again, we have a great chance of progressing.”
Going on to discuss Rosenborg’s game plan further, Eidevall explained how the Norwegians gained success from periodisation of tactics.
“It was apparent when I watched the game that Rosenborg didn’t have one idea for the whole game,” Eidevall explained. “They had lots of different micro-moments in the game where they tried to periodise their tactics; changing their line of engagement in pressing, changing their tactics from how they were playing out from goal kicks for example. That’s a good way of changing momentum. As a team, you felt that they did well with a clear and structured plan of how to periodise the game.
“I’d expect nothing less in the game tomorrow. They will probably have just as good or an even better plan. They will be filled with belief after it worked last time, so we will need to be at our very best.”
Arsenal cruised through their own semi-final tie against Rangers, netting five of their six goals in a relentless second half. Eidevall was impressed with how his side never gave Rangers a moment to settle into the contest.
He said “It was a great start. The players were excellent at being connected and alert from the first kick of the game both on and off the ball.
“The team maintained that standard throughout the whole game which is sometimes a difficult thing to do in football because you can so easily come into a spell of five minutes where you become a little bit complacent. You then give your opponents a moment to get into the game.
“That was a really impressive part of our performance, I don’t think we gave Rangers any moment in the game and that’s very difficult to do, so the team should be really proud.”
Arsenal’s UEFA Women’s Champions League Round 1 final tie against Rosenborg BK kicks-off at 7.30pm on Saturday evening. Tickets for the match are on general sale and can be purchased by clicking here.
“They beat a really strong opponent and that demands a lot of respect. I think we saw them as a team, really strong on set pieces and really well organised. You could see that they have a really good culture within the team as they were handling really adverse situations and moments against Atletico with a really good focus on what they could control.
“So we know we’re gonna play against a tough opponent. That’s how the Champions League should be. It should be tough games. It should be tough challenges. And that’s why we want to play in the Champions League, because we want to play against the best. We focus on our performance, and if we can do well again, then we have a great chance of progressing in the Champions League.”
After the way our Gunners played on Wednesday against Rangers, it will be extremely interesting to see how Eidevall lines up his squad and how well they gel tonight, against a well-drilled Roseborg.
If they can keep the momentum, and drive it into their Arsenal DNA, our Gunners should be a very real force to be reckoned with this season. Aren’t you excited? COYGW!
