Arsenal must be wary of Benfica's 'psychological presence', says Slegers

Arsenal will be hoping to get their Champions League title defence back on track against Benfica after an opening day defeat to Lyon.

Arsenal boss Renee Slegers believes her side must be ready to take on Benfica's "psychological presence" when they face off in the Women's Champions League.

The reigning champions were unable to start their title defence with a win, falling to a 2-1 defeat at home to Lyon, but Benfica also lost 2-1 in their campaign opener to Juventus.

Arsenal have lost just one of their last six away games in the group stage of the Champions League (W4 D1), and have found the back of the net at least once in each of their previous nine such matches; Roma (10) and Brann (three) are the only other teams to score in every away game at this stage of the competition.

However, Benfica are unbeaten in their last three home games in the group stage of the Champions League (W2 D1), having four of their six previous such games in the competition (W1 D1).

Slegers insisted her Arsenal team must prepare properly for an "intense" battle in front of a potentially hostile crowd at the Estadio da Luz.

"I've played against them a couple of years ago," said Slegers in her pre-match press conference. "They're a very aggressive and intense team to play against.

"They have a psychological presence, if I can say so. So they will be intense from that perspective as well. I think they believe in what they're doing.

"We're going to play at the big stadium, we're going to have a crowd. We also have fans coming, which is great.

"So we expect a lot of intensity in the game, which we want to match and always want to bring as well, and we want to deal with it in a good way and create control in the game for ourselves.

"They will be aggressive on us, they will put pressure on us, and we'll have to be composed and well-positioned and have good technical detail to play away that pressure.

"So, we expect a hard game, a very different game from the game against Lyon. But we look forward to the challenge."

Arsenal have never faced Benfica in the Champions League. In fact, this will be the first time the Gunners have come up against Portuguese opposition in the competition.