Renée: "We can do special things"

As we strode to yet another commanding victory in the Barclays Women's Super League, Renée Slegers shared her delight with the squad's performance.

Our head coach noted how our side hit the ground running after a long international break with a 5-1 victory over Leicester City at Emirates Stadium - our seventh straight home win where we've scored at least four goals. 

"It's always hard coming back from international break," said Renée. "Players have been all over the world, playing for other teams, with other players, playing a different style of football. We've had three training sessions to get back together and they have been of such high intensity. 

"We were quite confident going into the game because of the way we've been preparing ourselves and the way the players have come back. I'm very happy, of course, with the result. This is all we wanted. The objective of the block in WSL is getting four out of four. Now we take the first step, so that was very important. I think we have four different goalscorers tonight. A lot of good performances."

Along with another three points to consolidate our spot in the WSL, there were more positives from the match as Victoria Pelova scored her first goal back from a long-term injury.

"Vic makes her first goal again after her comeback. You've all seen before the injury how good and important she was for us. She brings something else in midfield and it always takes a little bit of time when you've been away with long-term injuries, but I think she really starts to look like herself again.

"I'm so happy for her because this was something new for her as well, to go through this and be away from football for so long and having to work hard physically in another way instead of on the pitch with a ball. She's learned so much and I think she's come out of it so strong."

Now our attention turns to Saturday with the first leg of our Champions League semi-final against Olympique Lyonnais at Emirates Stadium.

"I think this is such a special place, especially with so many fans. I think if we have the belief and we hit our highest level, I think we can do special things. Huge respect for Lyon and everything they've already proven in the Champions League, the qualities they have in a team. It's going to be a big challenge, but we can't go into a semi-final not believing that we can make something happen, so we will definitely go in there with belief and bravery.

"We just need as many players as possible, as fresh and ready as possible for the game. That's going to be key. We're going to prepare all the detail from a tactical perspective and looking at how we're going to execute in this first game, these first 90 minutes. We just need to get all the details right in the preparation. We're going to work really hard together with the players."