THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal Women are back in Lisbon to play Benfica at Estadio da Luz on Thursday evening. It’s the city that played host to their ultimate triumph in May when they beat Barcelona 1-0 in the 2025 Final at nearby Estadio Jose Alvalade. Having been beaten at home by Lyon on match day one, Renee Slegers’ side really needs to get on the board in terms of points for the league phase.
The players will enjoy a short break following this game before the majority of them join up with their countries for the October international break. So long as the result goes Arsenal’s way, it feels like a good time for the players to get away with their national teams. It’s a long time for the squad to be together from the beginning of pre-season through to mid-October now that the September international window has been abolished.
It will be interesting to see how Renee Slegers approaches team selection. I am not expecting wholesale changes by any means but she might consider players who have found minutes difficult to come by, like Kyra Cooney-Cross, Victoria Pelova, Laia Codina or Lotte Wubben-Moy, ripe for a game.
At the same time, Arsenal need to win and cannot underestimate Benfica, who are experienced in this competition after all and, when it comes down to it, Slegers rarely makes wholesale changes. While Sunday’s 1-0 win over Brighton arrested the slump in terms of results but Arsenal fans will need to see more in terms of performance before some of those jitters subside.
TEAM NEWS
Leah Williamson remains Arsenal’s only casualty, she is expected back from a knee injury in December.
Available squad
Goalkeepers: 1.Zinsberger 14.van Domselaar 28.Borbe
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 7.Catley 11.McCabe 22.Nighswonger 24.Hinds 44.Harwood
Midfielders: 8.Mariona 10.Little(c) 12.L.Maanum 21.Pelova 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 9.Mead 15.Smith 18.Kelly 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius
A WORD FROM THE BOSS
I played against them a few years ago with Rosengard, they are a very intense team, they have a psychological presence so they will be intense from that perspective as well. They believe in what they are doing, they will play at the big stadium with the crowd but we also have fans coming, which is great.
We expect a lot of intensity in the game which we want to match and we want to bring as well and we want to deal with it in a good way and create a good game for ourselves. It is very special for these players to compete in the Champions League, when I was young, growing up it wasn’t an option, it was a dream and now it is there. You get to compete against the best teams so we really look forward to it.
They have good players and they look disciplined and together in everything they do, they have a sense of unpredictability in the way they set up, sometimes spaces get really tight and it gets really intense so that is going to be our challenge to keep spaces big and be good in the spaces when they get tight. They will be aggressive and they will put pressure on us and we will have to be composed, well positioned and have good tactical detail to play away from that pressure.
LAST TIME OUT
Benfica and Arsenal have never met in an official game. Benfica have played English opposition in the Champions League once before and lost 5-0 at home to Chelsea and 3-0 away. Benfica were defeated by Juventus 2-1 on match day one.
THE OPPOSITION
Founded in 2017, Benfica have won five consecutive Campeonato Nacional Feminino’s and are seasoned campaigners in the Champions League now. However, last season they fell at the qualification stage to Hammarby and did not compete in the group stages as a result. In 2023-24 they qualified from their group but were eliminated by Lyon in the quarter-finals.
Benfica was home to Canadian winger Cloe Lacasse before she signed for Arsenal in the summer of 2023, they also reared Kika Nazareth, now of Barcelona. Jessica Silva also enjoyed a hugely successful two-year stint with Benfica between 2022 and 2024. Nowadays, they boast former Chelsea left-back Ana Borges, as well as former Inter Milan and Real Madrid forward Caroline Møller.
They also signed one of Portugal’s most decorated forwards Diana Silva from Sporting during the summer and she will represent one of the biggest dangers to Arsenal in this game. Benfica are used to dominating games and scoring plenty of goals but are experienced enough in this competition to ‘switch modes’ and play more of a counterattacking game when required. They are an intense team too and will look to go ‘player for player’ in their pressing approach.
PLAYER TO WATCH
Kyra Cooney-Cross’ cameo against Brighton on Sunday has merely amplified the clamour for the Australian midfielder to come into the starting line-up for the first time this season. Mariona has been subbed in the 79th and 63rd minutes in the last two games while 35-year-old Kim Little has started every game so far this season. As I wrote in this week’s Arsenal Women Newsletter the number 10 position is becoming an issue and it could be argued that Mariona is best placed to solve it.
However it happens, fans will want to see Cooney-Cross in the team on Thursday, with Slegers saying she was impressed by her substitute appearance against Brighton on Sunday. ‘Kyra was really good when she came on. She’s such a great ball carrier.
‘She has so much forward intent and the way she plays and progressive passing, so she did really, really well for us today.’ The formula has not been working recently in midfield so some kind of change feels necessary in the medium term, if Cooney-Cross can’t get into the team for this game, it really is time to ask why she wasn’t sold in the summer and replaced with a player the manager trusts.
MY PREDICTED LINE UP
Subs: 1.Zinsberger 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 11.McCabe 12.L.Maanum 18.Kelly 19.Foord 21.Pelova 22.Nighswonger 23.Russo 28.Borbe 44.Harwood
HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game kicks off at 8pm on Thursday at Benfica’s Estadio da Luz, it will be shown on Disney + in the UK. Details of where you can watch it elsewhere in the world are available here.
COMING UP
We will have Aidan Gibson’s on the whistle match report immediately after the game finishes, I will be on the ground in Lisbon too with full quotes from Renee Slegers on the site around an hour after full-time, we will likely be able to talk to a player or two as well. Jamie and I will record a mailbag podcast next week given it’s the international break. As ever, don’t forget we have a free weekly newsletter about Arsenal Women you can subscribe to here.
