We are guaranteed an Arsenal player in the final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, 31st July now that Stina Blackstenius’ Sweden are confirmed as England’s opponents in the semi-finals.
England came through a nervy quarter-final with Spain in Brighton, where they trailed by a goal until Ella Toone’s late equaliser. Bayern Munich’s Georgia Stanway smashed an extra-time winner home from range. Leah Williamson played the whole 120 minutes, Beth Mead started but was subbed after 56 minutes, while Nikita Parris made her first appearance of the tournament as an extra-time substitute. Lotte Wubben-Moy was an unused sub.
𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺.
𝗦𝗘𝗠𝗜 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗧 🔜 🦁 pic.twitter.com/p1Uwidynkp
— Beth Mead (@bmeado9) July 21, 2022
Sweden and Stina Blackstenius were 1-0 victors over Belgium in their quarter-final thanks to a goal in second half stoppage time from Linda Sembrants. In the first half Stina Blackstenius had a goal ruled out for offside by VAR though even the screen grab from the incident still seemed to suggest she was onside.
calling this in a tournament knockout game is criminal pic.twitter.com/oAFos00lXg
— ashna (@ashnaguliani) July 22, 2022
Sweden (Stina Blackstenius) will play England (Leah Williamson, Beth Mead, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Nikita Parris) meet in the semi-final at Bramall Lane on Tuesday evening at 8pm.
Elsewhere, Manu Zinsberger and Laura Wienroither were part of the Austria side that lost their quarter-final 2-0 to Germany on Thursday evening. Zinsberger says she will stay on to support her clubmates for the remainder of the tournament before heading on holiday.
🗣️ Zinsberger on #Arsenal players who have featured in the tournament: "I think we represented our club extremely good. Laura [Wienroither] has played an unbelievable tournament. When I look at #ENG players, everyone is doing a really great job."
— miedemastuff (@miedemastuff) July 23, 2022
In the final quarter-final, Vivianne Miedema returned from covid to start for Netherlands against France on Saturday evening and played the full 120 minutes having just recovered from covid. However, France took the spoils with a deserved 1-0 win after extra time. Vivianne Miedema said after the final whistle that “the whole tournament has been shit for me” having missed two games with covid and not really been in top condition for the other.
Miedema met tranen in de ogen: 'Mijn hele toernooi was gewoon kut. Daar kan ik niet omheen. Vandaag heb ik alles geprobeerd te geven. Dat het voetballend niet altijd top was, dat weten we allemaal. Volgens mij mag ik heel erg trots zijn dat ik iets aan het team heb kunnen geven.'
— Annemarie Postma (@Postma11) July 23, 2022
Germany will play France in the second semi-final on Wednesday evening at Milton Keynes but there will be no Arsenal involvement in that one.
It’s been an enjoyable tournament so far. Hope Beth Meade wins the golden boot. By the way how good are the Spain and France team? It’s scary. We should definitely try to recruit few players from the France and Spain team if possible. I really liked Selma Bacha and Delphine Cascarino. They ran the Netherlands ragged on the wing. And Wendie Renard is such a good defender. Between Williamson, Renard and Rafaelle, we will have proper competition in Center back position. And Bacha can play left back as well. Last season our defense were a bit slow and was easily… Read more »
Good luck getting some of Lyon’s top players to Arsenal
I liked the look of the Dutch keeper van Domselaar, she’s only 21/22 & looks to have a big future based on her performances during the tournament, I’d definitely be looking at her as a future replacement for Manu if I was the club, especially with them seemingly not trusting Fran. Speaking of Manu, hopefully she doesn’t let her 2 mistakes in the quarters get to her, need her head in the game for the new season
She played a blinder against France. Especially would love her as Zinsberger was a downgrade on our previous keepers.
Zinsberger keeps making mistakes of turning off for some goals we concede. And it seems also for Austria. It’s the same every season. She’s supposed to be a playing out the back keeper but makes to many mistakes there and gets clueless when teams keep pressing her.
France would’ve been out of sight by half time without van Domselaar. Wouldn’t surprise me if Sari failed to regain her #1 jersey when fit. I’m not Manu’s biggest fan, she either has a really good game or a really bad one, there’s no middle ground. I know she won the Golden Gloves last season but I think that says more about the lack of talent/quality outside the Big 3 & United/Spurs then her shot stopping prowess, she seems to have lapses in concentration at key moments & as you’ve said, shits the bed whenever she’s closed down & that’s… Read more »
Don’t agree with this. Last goal I can recall when she got caught like this was when we were 6-0 up v Reading in September 2020. Manu has 100% short passing completion over her three years at Arsenal and 98% medium pass completion. Her mistakes with the ball are exceedingly rare.
I hold England as favourites by 80-20 in the semifinal for two reasons.
First they have two(!) more days of recovery than Sweden (same for Germany against France). How can it be in a tournament like this?
Second, Rolfö out of form and Seger’s injury lays to much responsible on Asllani’s shoulders I’m afraid.
But let’s hope it will be a match to remember. Nice with Gunners represented in the final anyway.
Asllani is also a player who stays on the ball to much when others are in better positions. Dare I say she is greedy?
Genuinely hope England can win the tournament.
Don’t think she is greedy but she really wants to win an international trophy.
I hope Sweden can spoil the party for England. 😉
Would love to see Caroline Seger lift the trophy but realistically England and Germany are the favourites.
Really enjoying the tournament – just reinforces my love of women’s football! Performance in World Cups/Euros isn’t always the best indicator for recruitment so I will be interested to see what sort of player Jonas brings in. I think midfield is more an area that needs reinforcement rather than defence. I’d love to see Lena Oberdorf join Arsenal but I do wonder how easy it would be for us to tempt top players away from the likes of Wolfsburg, PSG, OL or Barcelona.
Would take a big contract offer and selling the project’s future well
That’s the problem, isn’t it?
We can see that there has bee a significant improvement but the top players already have decent contracts at clubs that have been successful whilst Arsenal have been in the duldrums.
We are getting there but are Europe’s top players already playing in Europe’s top clubs going to be interested in a “project”?
I would love to see Lina Magull sign for us.
I have been very impressed by her passing, shooting and pressing. Incredible energy.
We can dream (i dream about signing Hemp), but it will be a big surprise if we can sign a key player from the likes of Wolfsburg, Bayern, Chelsea, City, Barca, OL or PSG.
Alright, I dont want any shenanigans from you brits when Stina blasts you out of the competition. Its not on it’s way home or whetever you call it.