'That was a great memory' Williamson looking to Bayern turnaround from 2023 against Madrid
03/25/2025 01:25 PM
Arsenal defender Leah Williamson says the memory of overturning a deficit against Bayern Munich in the 2023 UWCL quarter-final will be a good reference point for the Gunners as they seek to reverse a 2-0 deficit against Real Madrid on Wednesday evening.
Real were surprise 2-0 winners in Madrid last week leaving Arsenal with a mountain to climb for the second leg at Emirates Stadium. Williamson was part of the team that beat Bayern Munich 2-0 at the same stage of the 2022-23 competition at the Emirates to overturn a 1-0 first leg defeat.
Williamson assisted an outstanding Frida Maanum goal that evening and Williamson said, ‘I think we’re very lucky here because that stage tomorrow night isn’t foreign to us. Being part of Arsenal means that you play in front of big crowds and you’re competing always with every team.
‘But I think there’s a lot more experience than me in the team with these sorts of situations. So I’ll play my role, play my part. I think the experience of overturning the last quarter-final against Bayern Munich, I think that comes in handy for anybody that played in that game.
‘That was a great memory. Good things happen in football, bad things happen in football. When the good things happen, you keep them in your pocket just as much as the bad, but you call on them when you need them. So I think anybody that was involved in that game will take confidence from that knowing that we know how to do it. Almost an identical situation.’
‘It was the same situation; football doesn’t stop so you have a different task. We had a different task to focus on leading up to Saturday and then we had a new one again going to tomorrow. It was very similar circumstances, so a lot of what we’ve spoken about today was the same back then.
‘We had a great second half finish where we put them under a lot of pressure and we wanted to pick up exactly where we left off and that’s the aim for tomorrow as well.’
Williamson also says her team will be fueled by the regret over the first leg performance and result on a terrible playing surface in Madrid, ‘ I think there was a general feeling that we wasted a potential opportunity. As Renée said, two teams playing on the same pitch.
‘The pitch wasn’t at the standard that it needed to be, but we both played on it. I think the anger is more frustration at ourselves because we know what we can do and we didn’t. We know that we have more and that’s frightening for other teams also because I think the game, we were still competitive.
‘We need to score goals. That’s what it comes down to and we need to stop that. We were frustrated, but more so at ourselves than anything else because the pitch, weather, whatever it is, the standards of Arsenal are higher than they were last Wednesday. I think, firstly, the focus is on us.
‘If we played a perfect game last week and we got beaten by a perfect game from the other team, that can sometimes be football but that wasn’t the case. It’s about us taking individual responsibility first and foremost and making sure that everybody stays present in that.
‘I think everyone has a role to play in it but if the leaders of the team step up in that way, which I think we have a lot of those and I think a lot of people have stepped up in different ways over the last couple of weeks and I think the results in recent times that we have scored goals in quick succession, turned games around, that does give us a lot of confidence. It’s about keeping everybody calm, staying on the job, so to speak, and just doing what we know we can do. It’s important that we do it tomorrow.’
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