Magdalena Eriksson: English football reaping rewards of better results in Europe

Magdalena Eriksson believes it is good for English football that domestic clubs are performing well in the Women’s Champions League ahead of Chelsea’s upcoming group game against Vllaznia.

Chelsea beat Paris St Germain 1-0 in the French capital last Thursday, the day after Arsenal triumphed 5-1 at reigning European champions Lyon.

Last year Chelsea – the Women’s Super League champions – were unable to qualify from their group, with Wolfsburg and Juventus progressing instead of the Blues.

And defender Eriksson, 29, is impressed with the turnaround, saying: “It’s really good for the league that English teams are doing well in Europe.

“It means that we have a really competitive league, we feel like every single game is tough. There’s not an easy game that we play.

“And I think those are the things that will show in Europe eventually because we play these tough games. We’re having big squads because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to be successful on all fronts.

“So I do think that it’s a really good sign for English football. It’s really moving in the right direction and the league is looking strong.”

General manager Paul Green, who is taking charge of Chelsea during manager Emma Hayes’ recovery from surgery, expects Albanian side Vllaznia to provide tricky opposition on Wednesday.

“We’re expecting a tough game,” he said. “I think they’ll be very well organised, very well structured defensively. They did very well against Real Madrid last week.

“Two late goals in the second half ultimately got Madrid the win but they were very difficult to break down.

“We’re looking forward to a tough game, but we know that if we perform to our best, we’ll have more than enough to get the result.”