Preview: Arsenal v Rangers Women

The wait for the 2024/25 season is finally over as we kickstart our UEFA Women's Champions League journey this evening.

The stakes are as high as they come for a season opener when we take on Rangers in a knockout fixture at Meadow Park at 7.30pm.

If you're following the action at home, the full match will be streamed worldwide and live on Arsenal.com and the app.

What's at stake

After our shootout heartbreak in last season's qualifying rounds, our Gunners are even more determined to progress this time around and bring European football back to north London.

A longer pre-season to embed new arrivals could prove especially important ahead of the tie, as both Rosa Kafaji and three-time winner Mariona Caldentey have Champions League experience to draw from.

If successful against Rangers, we'll then face the winner of Atletico Madrid and Rosenborg's semi-final on Saturday. That knockout match will decide which team progresses to Round 2.

"We’ve been going through the [qualification stages], so we know how it feels like to win the mini-tournament," reflected Jonas Eidevall ahead of the tie. "We know how it feels like to win the Round 2 Playoffs. We know how exciting it is to be in the group stage. We very much see ourselves as a European club, but we know it isn’t easy."

Our opponents

Founded in 2008 in partnership with Paisley City Ladies, Rangers were promoted to the Scottish Women's Premier League in their very first season and have worked their way into league contention since.

They became league champions during the 2021/22 season, securing a Champions League spot for the very first time. Victories over Ferencvarosi and PAOK saw the side through to Round 2 and they were just an extra-time period away from beating Benfica and reaching the group stages in 2022.

During the most recent campaign, Rangers finished second in the SWPL and bagged some silverware, winning both the Women's Scottish Cup and the SWPL Cup. The Scottish side are managed by former Lioness Jo Potter, who also spent a season with us at Arsenal.

What the managers say

Eidevall: "It’s knockout football, we need to bring our very best from the first second in the game to the very last, so there’s no underestimating opponents for us. We know how tricky of a stage this one is too, so we’re expecting a very good opponent and we’re going to do our absolute very best to try and progress.

"If you look at football as a global club phenomenon, the Champions League is what makes European football so special, and what makes the whole world want to come to Europe and compete.

"[Rangers] were very, very close to knocking out Benfica, who we know is a good European team, in last year’s qualifiers. They almost got there on extra time. I think their run in the Champions League last season deserves a lot of respect and we know that they are very capable of putting in good performances in these stages of the season."

Potter: “I think we have pulled out the highest-seeded team available in the draw so it is tough but that is what it is there for.

“The whole emphasis will be on [Arsenal] to beat us because that is probably what everybody expects so we have got to try and take a little bit of an advantage of that.

“We have had good conversations with the group and the players about how we are going to play, how we are going to set up, what that looks like and we are going to go down there and try to cause an upset.”

Team news

Beth Mead and Steph Catley missed Saturday's pre-season friendly against Southampton and the pair are not available for the UWCL tie.

"It’s a day-by-day thing," said Eidevall, in his pre-match press conference. "I think Beth is definitely getting very close to returning to the squad so she’s the next in line to return."

Whilst Lotte Wubben-Moy and Daphne van Domselaar also missed out on Saturday, they both participated in full team training on Tuesday.