{"id":449654,"date":"2026-01-31T14:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/449654\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T14:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:02:14","slug":"womens-champions-cup-final-arsenal-chase-more-glory-against-intense-corinthians-womens-champions-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/449654\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Champions Cup final: Arsenal chase more glory against \u2018intense\u2019 Corinthians | Women\u2019s Champions Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ren\u00e9e Slegers praised the impact of trailblazing hijab-wearing footballer Nouhaila Benzina after Arsenal\u2019s defeat of Moroccan side AS Far earned them a place in Sunday\u2019s Champions Cup final against Corinthians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked about the impact of Benzina competing in the new cross-continental club competition in London, with no hijab-wearing players currently playing in the Women\u2019s Super League, Slegers said: \u201cThe strength of football in society is that football is for everyone. It\u2019s really good that we have role models in all possible ways to show that football is for everyone. That just makes me happy. It\u2019s important. There are so many examples and different ways of how we can show that football is for everyone. This is one of them, so that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

More widely, the Arsenal manager said the opportunity for clubs from continents much further behind the development of women\u2019s football in Europe and the US to showcase their leagues, countries and continents \u201cmeans a lot\u201d. She said: \u201cNorms have to be broken to get where we want women\u2019s football to go. That\u2019s what they\u2019re doing. They\u2019re trailblazers and they\u2019re doing things that are bigger than what they maybe know they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

AS Far\u2019s hijab-wearing Nouhaila Benzina tussles with Frida Maanum of Arsenal during the semi-final. Photograph: Alastair Grant\/AP<\/p>\n

AS Far was a step into the unknown for Arsenal with it being the first time a European and African club team have played against each other in an official competitive match. Arsenal were untroubled by the Moroccan champions, earning a 6-0 win<\/a> at Brentford\u2019s Gtech Community Stadium on Wednesday. Corinthians will prove to be another unknown entity for the current European champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very proud to be in this tournament, we are very proud to be the champions of Europe and we look forward to playing against the champions of South America,\u201d said Slegers. \u201cWe are very respectful of the opposition, we are very humble also because of the unknown. So, we go into this game believing in ourselves and knowing how good we are. We are happy to play at the Emirates, our home stadium, but we will also respect the opposition. It\u2019s a final, so they\u2019re going to give absolutely everything, together with the fans. We\u2019re prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slegers has the same squad available to her as she did for the game against AS Far. She is \u201creally happy to have Chloe Kelly back\u201d and \u201cLeah Williamson is progressing really well\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cScheduling is very important,\u201d Slegers said. \u201cWe grow the game and we want a lot of things, but we also have to have the players\u2019 health in mind in all the decisions we make. I\u2019m really happy with the games that we\u2019re playing and at the moment with the squad that we have, the depth that we have and the availability that we have. We have the squad to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabriela Zanotti, Corinthians\u2019 match-winner against Gotham, hails her side\u2019s fervent fans. Photograph: Dylan Martinez\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The energy of the Corinthians fans was one of the highlights of their semi-final victory over Gotham FC<\/a> at Brentford. The noise from the crowd will be far from one-way at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to bring the intensity together with their fans,\u201d said Slegers. \u201cThey were amazing watching the game against Gotham with the energy they brought. Our fans are going to bring energy and the intensity as well. It will be a great football event.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball is growing everywhere around the world. AS Far is a good example of that; another continent, another culture, but there\u2019s so many things to the way they play and it\u2019s at such a high level and I think tactically you see that there\u2019s a trend globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of the chaos around the competition, there is a chance for Arsenal to add to their rich history at the weekend, namely the opportunity to be crowned inaugural global club champions. \u201cWe\u2019re very excited about the final, we look forward to it and it\u2019s a special moment for us, for the players, for the club,\u201d said Slegers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team\u2019s in a good place. We have to work really hard to keep on delivering and sustain our levels. So we can\u2019t be complacent about anything, especially not going into this final because Corinthians are a very good team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ren\u00e9e Slegers praised the impact of trailblazing hijab-wearing footballer Nouhaila Benzina after Arsenal\u2019s defeat of Moroccan side AS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-449654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}