Two fresh absences for Arsenal Women as Paris FC reunion looms

Credit: Getty Images

Arsenal Women head to the Stade Jean-Bouin on Wednesday evening for matchday two of the UEFA Women's Champions League group phase, and Renee Slegers will do so without two more members of her squad.

Chloe Kelly misses the trip to Paris with a hamstring issue, while Steph Catley is absent with a lower back problem. They join Daphne van Domselaar (knee), Elisa de Almeida (muscle strain), and both Michelle Agyemang and Katie Reid (ACL) on the treatment table, leaving Slegers with a 19-player squad for the game.

Arsenal opened their European campaign with a 1-0 win over Danish side HB Koge, Mariona converting a stoppage-time penalty to secure three points. That result followed a 1-0 defeat at Chelsea in the WSL on Saturday.

A familiar opponent with history

Paris FC will not need reminding of their last competitive meeting with the Gunners. In September 2023, the French side came from 3-2 down in extra time to force 3-3 in the preliminary round in Sweden before winning on penalties, knocking Arsenal out of the competition entirely. They went on to eliminate Wolfsburg on spot-kicks in the final preliminary round.

The two sides also met in pre-season in August, with Olivia Smith scoring a stoppage-time winner after Arsenal struggled to break down a Paris low block. Sandrine Soubeyrand's side finished second in the Arkema Premier League last season and pushed Barcelona early on matchday one before losing 5-2 at the Johan Cruyff Stadium, taking the lead through their threat in transition.

Slegers is expecting a different contest to the friendly. "That was a pre-season game, both teams are trying out different things, there's a lot of changes in the game," she said. "So yeah, I think the game will be different tomorrow, it will be highly competitive so I don't think it will look similar and of course we've watched that game against Barcelona as well where they scored the first goal and they threatened with that directness which they're really strong at so that's something we'll have to manage really well tomorrow."

Points to bank before Lyon and Barcelona

With a home fixture against Lyon and a trip to Barcelona still to come in the group, Arsenal's margin for error in the remaining matches is limited. Last season, surrendering a 2-0 lead at Bayern Munich to lose 3-2 ultimately cost them a bye to the quarter-finals and sent them into the Round of 16 instead.

Writing in his preview for Arseblog, Tim Stillman highlighted Taylor Hinds as a player to watch, noting the left-back has been left out of the last two WSL squads due to squad size restrictions and is the rare left-footed option in a squad where Ona Batlle has been asked to invert into midfield.

Kick-off in Paris is at 5.45pm UK time on Wednesday, with the match shown live on Disney+ in the UK. A trip to Manchester City follows on Sunday before the international break.