Renee Slegers said Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid was the best performance of her reign as the Gunners overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit to book their place in the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League.
Alessia Russo was at the heart of Arsenal’s quarter-final second-leg performance at the Emirates, with the England forward’s two goals helping Slegers’ side fight back from last week’s defeat in Madrid to win 3-2 on aggregate.
Manchester City loanee Chloe Kelly continued her stunning return to the capital with two assists, one of which was for former Barcelona midfielder Mariona Caldentey’s header that levelled the tie.
Gunners boss Slegers, who took over in October as interim before being named permanent coach in January, will now lead her team against Lyon in the semi-finals next month.
“We’ve done really good things before and had good performances against good teams but this is definitely one of them,” Slegers said when asked if the win was the best night of her tenure.
“This is maybe the clearest one where you play an opponent away, the game looks like it does and then you come back a week after and put a performance and result forward. So I think this is probably the clearest one.”
Arsenal scored three times in 14 minutes after half-time to turn the tie around.
Russo’s first came after Caitlin Foord surged infield and fed Kelly to cross for her England team-mate to apply the simple finish.
After Caldentey’s header, Russo’s clinical finish in the area following a Katie McCabe free-kick took her tally in Europe for the campaign to seven.
“It was calm. We’ve spoken about it before that we need to be calm in every scenario,” Slegers added about the mood at half-time with Arsenal were still trailing by two goals on aggregate.
“If we don’t (keep calm) then we won’t find the solution. Everyone was calm, we felt we were dominant. I saw in the players eyes that we believed and they were very determined in a good way.
“Alessia was really good for us again. She scored goals but she does so many things for the team as well that are important, she puts so much work in.
“It’s important for the club, for the team. They want to go far in the tournament, win things and be on the biggest stage. I’m very happy with the result and to get to the semi finals.”
The defeat was Real Madrid’s eighth match of March as they showed signs of fatigue in London.
Real manager Alberto Toril told reporters: “We need to be in a better condition, we need to be stronger, create more chances, have more players, be able to rotate, we need to have more energy. We can learn from Arsenal in this.”
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