Before Daphne van Domselaar and her team-mates left London for this Saturday’s Women’s Champions League final against Barcelona in Lisbon, there was something vital she had to pack.
Her goalkeeper gloves? Her boots? No, much more important for the Arsenal ‘keeper were her crosswords — and a pencil, of course, to ensure things don’t get messy.
“We have a ritual now of always bringing crosswords on the coach for away games, or if we’re staying over somewhere,” Van Domselaar tells The Athletic days before she and her team-mates have to figure out arguably the toughest puzzle in women’s football: how to beat holders Barcelona in Europe’s showpiece event?
“We can’t go to a game without playing crosswords,” the 25-year-old, a self-confessed “bit of a nerd”, adds. The ‘we’ are fellow goalkeeper Naomi Williams and some of Arsenal’s backroom staff.
“Even though we always have them here (at the training ground) so we never forget, I’m like ‘S***, we forgot the crosswords’ and have to run back in to get them. Against Lyon (in the semi-final), we were away for two days so we couldn’t go without them. I said to security, ‘Give me one minute, I need to go back, don’t let the coach go’.”
As she does the crosswords in her second language, Van…
