Interview

Eidevall on defeat, never giving up, woodwork woes

Jonas Eidevall was impressed with his players’ spirit, despite being knocked out of the UEFA Women’s Champions League on Thursday night.

An early strike from former Gunner Jill Roord and a cruel own goal by Leah Williamson helped Wolfsburg to a 3-1 aggregate win in Germany, but our head coach is keen for his side to learn from these lessons and develop into a top European team.

Speaking after the final whistle, Eidevall revealed his emotions about his battling side, how we can improve, and our targets for the future. Read on for a full transcript:

on our performance…

We knew it was going to be a tough game today and we knew it was going to be decided by small margins. I think our first half was not good enough and I think we grew into the game into the second half. It really shows in the game that it is small margins that determine – we hit the crossbar, we hit the post, we had a penalty that looks clear to everyone else but the one who is reviewing it, and we don’t get that. We need to get something like that in a game like this today in order to get a result.

on not making the final ball count...

We didn’t, and that’s the thing, when you play against a team that presses you in that way like Wolfsburg do, of course you’re not going to be successful all the time playing out from pressure, but when you do, the rewards are huge and we didn’t profit from those moments. We know that if you’re going to be successful against a good team like Wolfsburg, you need to be more effective in these moments.

on his message to the team at full-time and their disappointments...

Of course. We were better in the second half. We showed a better version of ourselves, but the players never gave up and they took the game into almost the dying minutes with that penalty situation, which could have given us another life into the game. We need to learn from this game here if we want to be a top European team. There are things we need to develop, and we need to spend the rest of this season and next year's pre-season in order to develop it, but also to say, now is the time to refocus, be sharp and get ready for Sunday. It's one thing to lose one game, but we need to be ready for the next one and that requires a lot from everyone.

on what we can take from this season in the Champions League…

When you play Champions League, and that’s the best thing with it, you get exposed to the best club teams in Europe and obviously you learn a lot about yourself, both on an individual level and on a team level. That gives you a very clear picture of where you need to go and when you know where you need to go, then the journey becomes easier on how you plan. It provides us a really clear picture on where we want to be as a team and also as individuals in the future.

By Mark Ashenden.