“I think Arsenal have what it takes to win the Champions League this year,” says a confident Laia Codina, just two days after the club were beaten in their first game.
Jonas Eidevall and his team are under huge pressure to turn around their disappointing starts in both the Barclays Women’s Super League and the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Arsenal are yet to win a WSL game since the season started four weeks ago. They have only managed two draws against Manchester City and Everton, while they suffered a defeat against Everton.
Despite qualifying for the Champions League group stage, the Reds were thrashed by Germany’s Bayern Munich in their opening game, fueling an onslaught of criticism for their underperformance.
Speaking just a day before their WSL derby against Chelsea at Arsenal’s Sobha Realty training centre, defender Codina describes the match as a “must win”.
“It’s our job and we’re here to win,” he says exclusively 90 minutes. “We said before the start of the season that we believe we can win the league and we have to try to do our best. Everything is in our hands.”
However, Arsenal will face a confident Chelsea side who are unbeaten in the league under new manager Sonia Bompastor as well as coming off their first Champions League win.
“They always compete”, explains Codina. “They have very good players. I know Mayra Ramirez very well, and people like Lucy Bronze and Millie Bright have a lot of experience. It will be a difficult game, but that’s why I came to Arsenal: I want to play difficult games.”
When Arsenal took to the pitch at the Emirates Stadium, they would have had just two full days to recover from their Champions League defeat. Despite a bright start in Germany, Arsenal ended up losing 5-2 in an excruciating final thirteen minutes that saw Pernille Harder score a hat-trick.
Reflecting on the match, Codina says the team just “wasn’t that good” and she was “disappointed with the result”.
“I think we played a good part, but in the second half they were better than us,” he continues. “I don’t think the result reflects how we were in the game, but there is only one option (against Chelsea) and that is to win.”
Codina moved to Arsenal last year after winning two Ligue F titles with Barcelona, ​​who he had signed with since he was 14. The centre-back is also hungry for more success in north London after playing a pivotal role in helping Spain beat England in the 2022 World Cup final.
“I think Arsenal have what it takes to win the Champions League this year,” he says. “I am very convinced of: ‘It doesn’t matter how it starts, it matters how it ends’. I see us training every day and I see the hunger the players have. They really want to win titles and I think we have to believe that.
“We have with us Mariona (Caldentey), who has won the last two tournaments, and her mentality will help us a lot. The players already feel it.”
Codina’s teammate and Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati spoke earlier this year about the differences between Spain’s Liga F and England’s WSL. She revealed to him BBC Sport that despite winning the World Cup, things “have not changed” for the Spanish players.
The Arsenal centre-back explains it 90 minutes that he agrees with Bonmati and that was one of the reasons why he wanted to play football in England.
“There’s a feeling here that the club and the league have faith in women’s football,” she reveals. “You can feel that you are a professional player and that you are doing your job properly. I am grateful that I have made the decision because the English leagues are growing a lot, which will only see more players coming in.”
