{"id":8884,"date":"2024-09-02T16:05:12","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T15:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/?p=8884"},"modified":"2024-09-04T21:46:39","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T20:46:39","slug":"kerry-walklett-cardiff-city-aware-of-monumental-task-in-uefa-womens-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/news\/kerry-walklett-cardiff-city-aware-of-monumental-task-in-uefa-womens-champions-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry Walklett: Cardiff City aware of ‘monumental task’ in UEFA Women’s Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It\u2019s fair to say that when you draw one of the highest seeded teams in any draw, it\u2019s enough to keep you up at night.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the task facing Cardiff City, as they prepare to face Dutch champions FC Twente in the UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League on Wednesday. The only higher seeded team than Twente in the drew were Benfica; a fact that shows just how strong the team from Enschede are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City midfielder Kerry Walklett admits the challenge facing the Bluebirds is an almighty one, but fixtures like this are the reason she joined the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bluebirds in Europe<\/h2>
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\u201cWe\u2019ve played a lot of higher quality teams than us in preseason, because we know what a monumental task we\u2019ve got on our hands. We\u2019re prepared for spending quite a lot of time without the ball, but it\u2019s certainly an exciting prospect. In these tournaments, you have to play the best teams at some point, so why not the first game! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aware of the challenge in front of us. They\u2019re a phenomenal side, and we recognise it\u2019s a big ask and we\u2019ve got a lot to do. We\u2019ve been preparing all pre-season for this game. We\u2019ve looked at different shapes, different systems, but we\u2019re ready to go out there and do our absolute best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Twente go into the tie as firm favourites, especially as they have just come off the back of a 6-1 win over Ajax in the Dutch Supercup, City have plenty of qualities themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iain Darbyshire\u2019s side are coming off the back of their first ever treble winning season, and their last competitive game was a 2-0 win over Wrexham in the Bute Energy Welsh Cup final. Walklett believes the success of the last campaign can certainly help them come Wednesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cLast season gives us confidence, but we\u2019ve put that behind us now. As soon as you\u2019re back in preseason and there are new faces around and some have left, it\u2019s almost like a bit of a reset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re grafting hard again and we\u2019re certainly not getting complacent after what happened last year. We\u2019re very focused on what we want to achieve, and the first step of that is the Champions League.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge of facing a team containing Dutch internationals Dani\u00eblle de Jong and Kayleigh van Dooren, along with Cymru number one Olivia Clark, would be enough to scare many a player, but not Walklett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former West Bromwich Albion midfielder is part of the England Futsal team, and she will head off to the Futsal World Cup next month. The close control of futsal has certainly helped Walklett in the 11-a-side game, and she explained just what it\u2019s like to represent your country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite a small player, so the short and sharp technical side of the game I love. People I knew played futsal, and one of them asked if I wanted to come along, and I just love it. It\u2019s a fast-paced game, really tests your control, and you work from there. I\u2019ve only been properly playing for about three or four years, but it\u2019s really taken off with things like the England Women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real honour representing my country. We\u2019re going out to the Futsal World Cup in October and flying out to play in Moldova, so doing that off the back of this Champions League run means it\u2019s a really exciting few months for me. To be selected to represent your country is a privilege, particularly in a sport I find so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Walklett\u2019s international pedigree will certainly aid City\u2019s cause, but the task in front of them still remains a difficult one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The playmaker knows they go in as underdogs but stressed the need for City to be confident and enjoy the moment, because who knows what could happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe realistic goal for us is to just give the best account of ourselves. Of course we want to win every game, but the minimum standard for us is to get one win out of these two games. It\u2019s important for us to recognise as well that when we come back, we\u2019re jumping straight into league action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver this pre-season we\u2019re really hitting those high standards, so for us, we want to go out and give a good account of ourselves, and make sure we\u2019re ready for the league when we come back. But more importantly we want to enjoy it, because for some of us, this might be our only chance to play in the Champions League.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s fair to say that when you draw one of the highest seeded teams in any draw, it\u2019s enough to keep you up at night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":8886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ftr_img_focal":{"x":0.54,"y":0.22},"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"class_list":["post-8884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adran-premier"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8891,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884\/revisions\/8891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faw.cymru\/adran-leagues\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}