Jonas Eidevall was ultimately pleased with our 2-2 draw with Wolfsburg in the Champions League semi-final, but recognises another big shift is needed when we host the German side on May 1.
Speaking after the game, our head coach reflected on our comeback, unbreakable spirit and what will be needed to reach the final in Eindhoven.
Here is everything he had to say:
on our performance, especially in the second half...
It's a very resilient team we had out there today. There's a lot of adversity we go through. It's a top result being 2-0 down. We respond in a very good way to give ourselves the chance to turn this match around by. With that background, of course, the result is pleasing, but it's only half-time. Both teams have everything to play for when we see each other in London.
on whether this result will give us belief in the deciding leg...
I hope so. I hope that gives our supporters that as well. I hope the unsold tickets change very quickly to sold tickets from people that saw the performance today. We need every one of you fans out there on Monday. Together, we can work hard and we can make it possible to go to a final.
on that comeback spirit being seen across the club...
It's what we want to see from representing this club. When we talk about team spirit, team first, always being 100% no matter what the situation is, we need to represent the club this way. It's so pleasing to see that, right now, it seems like an overall theme for the whole club. It's just inspiring to see the other teams doing that and hopefully, we can also inspire others to do it.
on what it means to have so many key players on the sidelines...
As always, we play for the players that are not there. We play for all the people that have supported us throughout our careers. We play for the fans. We carry a lot of players, not on our banks, but they're lifting us on the pitch because we're playing for them. That's really important.
on playing Victoria Pelova and McCabe in the dual 10 role...
I think we needed to balance that way. It was a combination of how Wolfsburg set up but also the players that we had available. And we come from a really, really tough schedule here. Going away to Manchester, playing late Wednesday night, and travelling to Germany - it's not easy.
We know with the injuries that we don't have that many alternatives either from the bench, so it's been a big shift for some players here. We knew we needed to be smart to manage it. But then we have to see what's going to be the best formation when we're in the return leg. We have some time to think about that so that's nice.
on being one match away from a Champions League final...
We're going to prepare like normal because we always try to be our very best. It's a boring answer, but we can't do anything different to that.
Of course, there are details we need to work on, both in defence and offence. We need to remain process-orientated and we need to put everything else together with defence, then anything can be possible.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
