Renée reflects on first leg defeat to Lyon

Renée Slegers wasn't surprised to see ourselves and Lyon go toe-to-toe in a closely fought contest at Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

The visitors came out on top from the first leg of the UEFA Women's Champions League semi-finals, but our inspired second-half performance gave us positives to take.

"I think the game played out as we expected it to play out," our head coach said. "Two top teams. I think we have different types of threats in our teams and I think most moments in the game we do really well defending against their threat and their three forwards. It's really hard to defend against it because they have so much quality and so much speed, but then the two moments where they come out, they score from it. That's the fast attacks, the counter attacks that they like to create in the game and we concede from that.

"I think we had a really good period in the second half where we play the way we want to play. We dominate, we win the ball back quickly, we create chances. Unfortunately, it was hard work for us to get the ball into the net, but also a very strong opponent of course, but then we finally get the ball into the net by a penalty. We worked really hard for that, so then it's disappointing that we conceded the goal afterwards.

"I think we set ourselves up well in the second half, in that period when we dominate. We get into areas that we want to get to and we get numbers into the box and I think we create some really good chances. We wanted more and you know that you need to score on your chances against Lyon because they have so much threat as well. We're going to review, but at the end of the day it's one goal difference and it's half-time, so we still have all the chances in the second leg."

In her pre-match press conference on Friday, Renée spoke about wanting our players to have the freedom to express themselves. While that remains important going forward, she pointed out that the away tie at Groupama Stadium could also be about staying structured.

"We need good structure in the second leg as well because they're so good, but then on the ball, fluidity is important for us to be able to disrupt opposition," she explained. "That's always going to be a part of our game."

One trait that can't be questioned this season is the team's comeback-ability, having turned games around in various challenging scenarios. We'll need to do that again as we look to reach the final next weekend, and the players remain full of belief.

"Of course there is belief," Renée said. Like I just said, it's half-time now and it's one goal difference. We know it's a big challenge and a really good opponent, but we believe and we need to believe that it's possible next week."