Renee Slegers urges Arsenal to match ‘aggressive and intense’ Benfica

Arsenal boss Renee Slegers wants her side to match Benfica’s intensity when the holders look to get the defence of their Women’s Champions League title on track in Portugal on Thursday night.

The Gunners slipped to a 2-1 defeat to Lyon at Meadow Park in their opening fixture of the new-look league phase, which followed a 3-2 loss at Manchester City in the Women’s Super League.

Having ended a four-match winless run with a 1-0 WSL victory over Brighton at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, Slegers has challenged her players to build some momentum when they head to Lisbon.

“They (Benfica) are a very aggressive and intense team to play against,” said the Arsenal boss, who reported no fresh injury concerns from Sunday.

“They have a psychological presence and believe in what they are doing, so we expect a lot of intensity in the game, which we want to match and always want to bring as well.

“We want to deal with it in a good way and create control in the game for ourselves.”

Manchester United are also in action as their maiden Champions League campaign continues with a tough trip to Atletico Madrid.

Manager Marc Skinner, who oversaw victory over Valerenga in last week’s opener, said: “We’re excited, we’re looking forward to playing Atleti.

“They’re a fantastic team, a fantastic club. We know how good we are, we believe in ourselves, but we also know we’re facing a really tough challenge.”

Elsewhere on Thursday, Bayern Munich, thrashed 7-1 at Barcelona, will be out to kickstart their European campaign against Juventus.

Real Madrid will look to follow up an impressive 6-2 win over Roma with another three points when they head to Paris St Germain, who lost 4-0 at Wolfsburg.