Tobin Heath Katie McCabe Arsenal Women 2021-22Getty

Arsenal Women to play boys' U16 team to make training 'more physical and faster' than Champions League games

Arsenal Women's team will face the boys' Under-16s side to prepare them for the Champions League, manager Jonas Eidevall says.

The Gunners finished runners-up in the Women's Super League this season, coming in one point behind champions Chelsea.

Arsenal's final placement has secured a spot in next season's Champions League and Eidevall hopes coming up against the boys' side will help get them ready for the challenge in Europe.

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What has Eidevall said about Arsenal Women facing male U16s?

Eidevall told The Athletic: "We have to have a good cooperation with our boys' academy to involve them in practices and internal games, so we can play against something more physical and faster than we will ever play against in the Champions League, in order to set the benchmark.

"That's an astonishing opportunity that most football teams around the world would give everything in order to do; to see if we can make our training harder than the games. 

"That means if we're successful in training, then we will for sure be successful in games as well. We'll have a little bit more time and it will be a little bit easier.

"That's more something to speak to [Arsenal boys' academy manager] Per Mertesacker with. U15 or U16 is usually a good age group where the physicality hasn't grown so much on all the players. They are a little faster than our players but it's not impossible to play against."

How did Arsenal perform in the Champions League this season?

Arsenal became the first British team to win the Women's Champions League in the 2006-07 campaign.

This season, the north London club reached the quarter-finals of the competition.

They finished second in Group C behind Barcelona to progress to the knockout rounds, edging ahead of Hoffenheim based on the goal difference in their head-to-head record.

But Arsenal were knocked out in the last-eight by Wolfsburg as they drew 1-1 in the first leg then suffered a 2-0 loss in the return fixture.

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