Koge relishing Women's Champions League adventure after Arsenal edge out minnows

Nadia Nadim says minnows Koge are simply relishing their Women's Champions League adventure following a narrow defeat to Arsenal.

The Gunners, European champions in 2025, clinched a 1-0 win over the Danish team, who are featuring in just their second Champions League campaign.

Mariona Caldentey's last-gasp penalty claimed the points for Arsenal, who were wasteful in front of goal.

Arsenal had 19 shots, but got just two of them on target, while they also hit the woodwork.

While Koge suffered late heartbreak, Nadim, who led the visitors' line, was thrilled with her team-mates.

"So proud of the team and the way we conducted ourselves, especially in the first half," she told ESPN on Disney+.

"We have a young team, a lot of them have no experience playing at this level, good for them to experience what it's like at this level. Good learning, disappointed they got the goal and penalty in the last minute. That's a part of the game, could've done better, but it's our first Champions League game and there's a lot of games left.

"We wanted to be compact and keep the ball, we had people who were comfortable with the ball. We changed in the last 30 minutes, and it didn't do us well because we couldn't get out of the pressure.

"Credit to Arsenal, great team, they find each other well. It's okay, happy for the young players to experience this.

"I enjoy the game. Physically, it's tough because you're so low, it becomes hard to be dangerous, takes a toll to try and get in the box the whole time.

"I love football, I love this game. It's nice to be back here. I always love the Champions League. Now we're a new team, let's see where this adventure will take us."

English sides are now unbeaten in their last 11 Champions League games against clubs from Denmark (W8 D3), since Arsenal’s 1-5 defeat to Fortuna Hjorring in the 2002-03 semi-final.

This win did see Arsenal snap a run of losing their opening Champions League fixtures in each of the past two seasons.

"We left it late," said Arsenal defender Steph Catley.

"It's tough at the moment and in the Champions League there are no easy games. They defended great, we didn't score early and it didn't come until the end.

"In the Champions League, you never think it's an easy day. I was expecting a tough game and it became really difficult but credit to the girls, they did everything and Mariona was very calm in that moment.

"It's hard to put your finger on it [what is going wrong], it is a bit of a slog and the goals are not coming as freely as they have in the past. It's not a lack of trying, we're doing everything we can to put the ball into the back of the net.

"We have great history in this competition and it's important we are in it every year and challenging to win. We have a real belief that we can go on and win it. It's a long season and we're working really hard so to get the wins early on is very important."

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain drew 1-1.

Felicia Schroder opened the scoring for Madrid after just two minutes, but Sakina Karchaoui equalised from the penalty spot in the second half.