By Roos Schelen (16/12/25)
Above: Renée Slegers during yesterday’s pre-match media conference. Photo: Arsenal website.
Renée Slegers says Arsenal will try to chase a top four position in this UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) league phase.
Arsenal play Oud Heverlee Leuven (OHL) on what is the final day of the league phase in the competition. Arsenal sit eighth and Leuven sit twelfth. Arsenal have already qualified for the knock out phase play off rounds. They could still skip those if they get a top four position and advance to the quarter finals directly, but a lot of results will have to go their way.
Slegers says: “It’s not within our hands, but we try to chase those top four positions. But Leuven will have to go for something as well or they will go for something. So it’s going to be an interesting game. All games will be played at the same time, so scenarios can change in an instance.”
OHL have held Paris FC, Paris Saint-Germain and AS Roma to draws so far in this UWCL campaign. Slegers thinks Leuven are an interesting team. “I think they are very disciplined in everything they do and they defend in certain areas. But they also have the ability to change things in game. They can go higher, they can go lower, they have quite some depth in the squad, so they can make changes that will change the game for them. So there’s a lot of different scenarios for the game tomorrow”, Slegers assesses.
During the weekend, Leah Williamson made her return from injury after more than 4 months out. In her absence, Steph Catley, Lotte Wubben Moy and Katie Reid have held the fort well at centre back. Katie Reid is now unfortunately out with an ACL injury, but Catley and Wubben Moy continue to make an impact on the pitch for Arsenal. Williamson being back however doesn’t give Slegers selection headaches.
“I’m happy that so many are performing at a high level”, Slegers says. “And I’m happy that Leah is back fresh. She got her first minutes against Everton and looked really good, looked like herself. And we always plan, thinking ahead. But like I just said, things change quickly and you need different things at different stages. There’s going to be schedules that are full”, she adds.
She also says she is really happy with the quality that Arsenal has. “I think it’s them taking really good ownership of building those relationships and partnerships with each other. And that’s been on a really high level. So it’s really good to have Leah back and it’s really good to have so much quality in central positions”, Slegers concludes.
The game tomorrow at Leuven’s Stadion den Dreef is sold out, which means a record crowd for Belgian women’s football. Beth Mead joined Slegers in the pre-match press conference and has played in the record breaking 2022 and 2025 Euros finals, a sold out Emirates Stadium, among others.
When Impetus asked Mead whether she’s getting used to playing so many record-breaking matches, Mead suggested that it is still surprising: “It’s fun to play in front of so many people. When you see how far the women’s game has gone, you played in front of a few hundred people, not even that.”
Tomorrow’s match between Oud Heverlee Leuven and Arsenal will be played at 8pm BST and is streamed live on Disney+.
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