Arsenal Women face Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League quarter-finals in San Sebastian on Saturday evening. The tie was supposed to be a two legged affair played back in March until the intervention of the coronavirus. The Gunners will be permitted to field new signings Lydia Williams, Malin Gut, Steph Catley and Noelle Maritz for the game. Here’s how Arsenal made it to the quarter-finals.
ROUND OF 32, FIRST LEG
Artemio Franchi Stadium, Thursday, 12th September, 2019
FIORENTINA 0 – 4 ARSENAL [Miedema 18, 51, Little 32, Evans 55]
Arsenal drew Italian runners-up Fiorentina in the round of 32 enabling Gunners boss Joe Montemurro to return to his ancestoral home of Florence, where he also earned his elite coaching badges. The Gunners made short work of the Italian side thanks to the combination work of Kim Little and Vivianne Miedema. The captain teed Miedema up for the first, before returning the favour later in the half, playing a one-two with the Scot on the edge of the area before Little fired into the net.
Miedema made it 3-0 at the beginning of the half after latching onto an under hit back pass. Lisa Evans completed the scoring, hooking a left-foot volley on the back post from Beth Mead’s cross. With four away goals in the bank, the second leg at Boreham Wood was a mere formality and boss Joe Montemurro took some time to celebrate his 50th birthday in Florence.
Team: 1.ZINSBERGER, 20.MAIER, 5.BEATTIE, 6.WILLIAMSON, 15.McCABE, 14.ROORD [22.Schnaderbck ‘76], 10.LITTLE [c], 7.VAN DE DONK [16.Quinn ‘74], 17.EVANS, 23.MEAD, 11.MIEDEMA [8.Nobbs ‘58]. Unused: 3.Mitchell, 18.Peyraud-Magnin.
ROUND OF 32 SECOND LEG
Meadow Park, Thursday, 26th September, 2019.
ARSENAL 2 [Little 43 pen, Miedema 74] FIORENTINA 0
Arsenal played the second leg in second gear more or less but it was comfortably enough to despatch the Italian side. Kim Little gave the Gunners the lead just before half-time after a handball in the area yielded a penalty. Little converted as she so often does. Miedema completed the scoring with 16 minutes of the tie remaining after collecting Jordan Nobbs’ through-ball and powering past Fiorentina keeper Corazzi for a 6-0 aggregate victory.
Team: 18.PEYRAUD-MAGNIN, 17.EVANS, 5.BEATTIE, 22.SCHNADERBECK, 15.McCABE, 6.WILLIAMSON [13.Wälti ‘67], 14.ROORD [8.Nobbs ‘67], 10.LITTLE [c], 23.MEAD, 7.VAN DE DONK [3.Mitchell ‘78], 11.MIEDEMA. Unused; 1.Zinsberger, 20.Maier.
Exclusive Arseblog News reaction from Lisa Evans
ROUND OF 16 FIRST LEG
Eden Stadium, Wednesday, 16th October, 2019.
SLAVIA PRAHA 2 [Svitkova 71, Persson 88] ARSENAL 5 [Miedema 24, 26, 39, 52, Little 58 pen]
Arsenal could have drawn Lyon, Wolfsburg, PSG, Barcelona or Bayern in the round of 16. Semi-pro Slavia Praha was not a gift horse Arsenal looked in the mouth. Vivianne Miedema’s first-half hat trick essentially put the tie to bed, before the Dutch forward added a fourth at the beginning of the second half.
Miedema was on course to score a fifth before being cynically impeded by a Slavia defender. Kim Little converted the spot-kick. Arsenal made some changes before the end of the game and conceded two late goals but those late concessions never truly threatened the outcome of the tie- as Arsenal showed in an emphatic second leg.
TEAM; 18.PEYRAUD-MAGNIN, 17.EVANS, 5.BEATTIE, 6.WILLIAMSON [16.Quinn ‘67], 15.McCABE [3.Mithcell ‘67], 13.WALTI, 10.LITTLE[c], 8.NOBBS, 7.VAN DE DONK, 23.MEAD, 11.MIEDEMA [14.Roord ‘76]. Unused; 1.Zinsberger, 2.Veje, 27.Filis.
Exclusive Arseblog match reaction from Katie McCabe
Exclusive Arseblog match reaction from Joe Montemurro
ROUND OF 16 SECOND LEG
Meadow Park, Thursday, 31st October, 2019
ARSENAL 8 [van de Donk 21, 59, 70, Little 24 pen, Roord 32, Miedema 45, 74, 86] SLAVIA PRAHA 0
Arsenal more than completed the job in the second leg against Praha with a resounding 8-0 victory. Danielle van de Donk and Vivianne Miedema helped themselves to hat-tricks, Kim Little kept up her record of scoring in every Champions League game this season but the pick of the goals on the night came from Jill Roord, whose first time volley nearly took the net clean off the posts on 32 minutes. Montemurro’s side set up a quarter-final tie with PSG thanks to a 13-2 aggregate victory over the Czechs.
TEAM; 18.PEYRAUD-MAGNIN, 20.MAIER, 5.BEATTIE, 16.QUINN, 2.VEJE, 14.ROORD, 10.LITTLE [c] [3.Mitchell ‘65], 7.VAN DE DONK [22.Schnaderbeck ‘74], 17.EVANS [13.Wälti ‘65], 23.MEAD, 11.MIEDEMA. Unused; 1.Zinsberger, 6.Williamson, 15.McCabe.
Exclusive Arseblog News reaction from Joe Montemurro
TOP SCORERS
Vivianne Miedema [10]* overall competition top goal scorer
Kim Little 4
Danielle van de Donk 3
Lisa Evans 1
Jill Roord 1
We will have a full preview for all of the eight remaining teams on the site tomorrow
? The #UWCL quarter-final schedule was confirmed today – and we now have kick-off times?
The full list?https://t.co/GtD8s1nFtk pic.twitter.com/M2QzaFWW2N
— #UWCL (@UWCL) June 26, 2020
Thank you for continuing to give such excellent coverage of the womens team! It’s a pleasure to read and keep up with, and it only makes me more and more connected and involved. Great effort!
I hope I can find somewhere to watch the game (being in Denmark, not a lot of coverage – does anyone know if UK or US channels show these games?)
In the UK the games will be on BT Sport 1. I think CBS in the US might be too but someone Stateside might be able to confirm on that.
Hey! I am also in Denmark, and agree that Arseblog’s coverage of the women’s team is brilliant. It’s great to keep up with the news via the blog.
For coverage, sadly I think the best we can do is find a stream online somewhere. A lot of the women’s games are on the BBC but not the Champion’s League unfortunately.
Nice article!! It was good to have a recap of all the UWCL Arsenal games. I missed most of their games in the 2019-2020 season due to school, so it was good to know a little bit more than just the score, fouls, and substitutions. I’m in the US, and I have no idea if they even show WSL games on TV. Does anyone know if there is a channel in the US that shows Arsenal Women?? Sadly, I cannot confirm if CBS shows them. I don’t think they do, but I’m not 100% sure. Do they show there games… Read more »
Sorry, I meant to reply to Tim, not OdalGooner. I don’t really use comments a lot. Sorry!
Every WSL game is available on the FA player app, which is free to download and not geoblocked.
Thanks!!
Thank you for this! It’s appreciated.
Good luck ladies ??