Arsenal duo to miss Champions League game against Leuven | OneFootball

Renee Slegers revealed that Stina Blackstenius and Beth Mead will not feature for Arsenal against Leuven in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Mead was forced off in the win over Manchester City and has not recovered in time.

But Kyra Cooney-Cross is back in contention for the first leg of Arsenal’s Champions League play-off.

“Kyra travelled and she is available for minutes tomorrow,” the Gunners boss said.

“Stina and Beth didn’t travel. Stina still has issues with her calf and Beth needs some time to offload her shin.”

Victory for Arsenal over two legs will see them progress to the quarter finals of the competition.

“They’re the first team to be at home and we play the second leg at home,” Slegers said on her side’s opponents.

“So I’ll have to guess their approach to the game. I think what will be important for them is to defend really well against us, but that will be just as important for us as well because I’m sure they will try and create things with fast attacks, with counter-attacks and we all want to stop that. 

“We respect who they are and they’re leading the table in Belgium and had a good performance in Champions League. So even though we came away with a 3-0 win here last time, we’re very humble for the challenge tomorrow.”