After a frustrating first leg away to Real Madrid, Arsenal have bounced back in style with a convincing win over Liverpool at the Emirates. However, Real Madrid too have shown their strength with a shock 3-1 victory over Barcelona, setting the stage for an electric second leg tie in London. 

Speaking to The Gooner Fanzine at London Colney, Leah Williamson acknowledged the importance of turning performances around and how the squad’s mentality is impacted by having a big win under their belts going into a high-stakes game.

“Yeah, like I say, we have proven to ourselves that we can turn things around, that gives us confidence” Williamson said. “But we are very much, you know, task in hand like Renée [Slegers] says. Saturday with Liverpool was a completely different task.” 

She stressed the value of staying present and purposeful in each game, with belief that recent improvements can carry momentum into Wednesday’s showdown.

“You’re in the moment preparing and trying to get the most out of yourself, which then subsequently makes the next game easier,” she explained. “The confidence comes from the fact that when we talk, we’ll talk about a direction.

“Like I said, Liverpool and Real Madrid are two very different opponents but compare how we played against [Liverpool] in the FA cup to the league – big difference.”

Looking ahead, Williamson remains focused but optimistic that they can be successful despite the aggregate score: “We’ve proven that we can. We have a big task ahead of us tomorrow… but I don’t know anyone that is shying away from [it]. I have every faith that we have what we need… we just need to get it out of ourselves.”