Oh my god this is so embarrassing. I clearly had no idea that we are in fact NOT yet qualified for the Champions League as we have another round of qualifiers and this time the opponents will be Hacken, but you knew that and clearly I just found out early this morning.
This is one of the things that I miss out when taking time off twitter and what I mean by that is the constant bombardment of news, all day long, so normally I would have known this but I was under the complete ignorant belief that the girls had made it and I even posted something about it on instagram and probably wrote on here with so much confidence.
Hacken should be a much tougher opponent than what the girls have faced so far. If they play like they played against Rangers we’ll be good, but I don’t see how we can play back to back performances like the one against Rosenborg and come out with a win. I truly don’t see that happening but maybe Hacken aren’t as good as Rosenborg? I have no idea.
I went from being super relieved and upbeat and optimistic to saying “oh shit….” And it’s not that I don’t think we can beat them… of course we can, and we probably will. But the shock realization is kinda jolting, not to be redundant, and I am suddenly overcome with doubt, if I’m being perfectly honest. What it boils down to is my lack of faith, support and empathy for the current manager but you know how I feel.
With that said, my faith in the players is unwavering and I cannot be convinced by anyone that we can’t beat any team on paper, specially with Lia getting more minutes and also Laia growing in confidence and feeling like she “finally arrived” and I’m paraphrasing but she now feels more comfortable with how her life is at Arsenal. This is a no brainer of a partnership along Leah… truly a no brainer. Euro cup winning Captain and World Cup winner, a twice CL winner and to this last point, this is someone that knows what it takes to win so the more we play her and Caldentey the better.
Speaking of Caldentey, an incredible player, I cannot fathom how incredible her and Viv together should have been. No, I’m not over Viv and I will never be over her leaving, FOR FREE TO A DIRECT RIVAL!!!!!!! Hahaha that is just never not insane and every time I think about it I write it.
Caldentey is incredible and so is Kafaji and of course theres a narrative about her facing her previous club, duh. But I’m excited about them getting more and more minutes together.
Lastly, we will not do a thing without Beth Mead. She needs to be playing if she is fit. I don’t care is Foord scores 89 goals in 3 matches. Beth is the right choice, always.
d ❤
THAT ARSENAL WOMEN PODCAST on:
You can listen to my music HERE
A very subjective look into AWFC 
Leave a comment