“We’re going in the right direction” – Ahtinen on pre-season opener | OneFootball

Olga Ahtinen felt our first outing in pre-season – a goalless draw with Sevilla on Friday evening – was a ‘step in the right direction’ as we build towards the start of the 2025/26 Barclays Women’s Super League.

Spending the last couple of days in southern Spain for an intense training camp, which you can follow live here on the blog, Martin Ho’s side kicked off their pre-season with a stalemate at Estadio Jesus Navas, with our new Head Coach pleased with the second-half display.

The Finland international, who returned slightly later to pre-season at Hotspur Way after representing her nation at Euro 2025, was one of a number of players to have completed 90 minutes in gruelling conditions, reaching 39 degrees ahead of kick-off in Sevilla.

Although we were unable to find the breakthrough, carving out a number of opportunities in the second period, there were a number of positives to take and Olga believes the performance is a platform to build on.

Speaking to SPURSPLAY after the game, she reflected: “It was a hard game. The conditions were super warm, like today was really hot here, I think we started a little bit poorly in the first half, but we could do things better.

“We were more aggressive in the second-half, and I feel like we could win the ball a little bit higher up and create a little bit more out of that.

“We did more of the things that we’ve been talking about and training. We could see a little bit more of that [in the second-half]. “We’ve been going through a lot of our build-up. I think we were struggling a little bit in the first half with that but, in the second-half, we could be a little bit higher up. We got more control of the game and I feel like we could keep them out of our half more, which gave us more time with the ball.”

But I think next time we need to just start at a higher level from the first half. It was a step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot to learn.”

Arriving in southern Spain on Monday (11 August) for the week-long performance camp, it has been the perfect opportunity for Martin to assess his squad ahead of the 2025/26 campaign but, as Olga highlighted, also strengthen relationships off the pitch with team-mates and staff.

“It’s been good,” she told us, looking back on the last few days. “We’ve had good training sessions, we’ve been learning a lot of new things and I think we are learning something every day.

“It takes a little time for us to get everything into place when we are actually out there on the pitch but, like I said, we are going in the right direction.

“It’s been really good days for us, on and off the pitch, spending that time together outside of the pitch too helps us become like a team. We have a few new players, so yeah, it’s been really important.”