Arsenal qualified for the Conti Cup quarter-finals with a comfortable 6-0 victory over Reading on Wednesday night at the Select Car Leasing Stadium. Goals came from Caitlin Foord, a Stina Blackstenius hat-trick, Laia Codina and Beth Mead. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match, the first four questions are from Arseblog News.
On being able to mix the team up after playing an unchanged line up in the first two games of the year…
It is really important that we have a squad that is alive and competing and that has quality. Not only that we have competition in the squad but that we have variety and being able us players and their strong qualities at times of the games and today was a very good example of seeing some players who haven’t played so much in the beginning of this year showing a really strong version of themselves on the pitch. I really liked that.
On converting dominance into goals…
This was another small step in the right direction of being better at breaking down low blocks and being better at keeping possession and attacking their box with combination play and we saw plenty of examples of that tonight. It was really nice to see. It doesn’t mean we are a definitely finished product yet, most teams never will be but it’s a step in the right direction.
On Stina Blackstenius scoring a hat-trick…
The strongest thing you can do for yourself to be in the starting eleven is to do what she is doing. I say to players ‘people don’t remember the minutes you don’t play.’ You can remember them but when you go on the pitch that is when you have the chance to make a memory and vote for who you are as a player and Stina has been doing that brilliantly this season, it’s another strong performance from her.
On Leah Williamson’s return…
It was a very nice quality, her pass to Beth and the finish is incredible. That was really pleasing to see, pleasing to have Kim back in the team as well playing her 300th game tonight and that is an incredible achievement and there is more to come. Laia Codina scores her first goal and she is another player who works incredibly hard behind the scenes and I am really pleased for her to have such a strong performance tonight, Stina scores her first hat trick for the club, a lot of positives to take from tonight.
On how tonight might have made his team selection harder for Sunday…
Yes, naturally it does. It should do, that is the way it should be when you represent Arsenal. That is a privilege and a pressure I very much like to deal with because the opposite is not good.
On the challenge posed by Reading…
They were organised and very compact. Football is always hard when teams defend with almost 11 players in their own penalty box but I think we created a lot of opportunities. You could see they were trying to catch us on the counter attack so you need to be cautious and focused, you can’t afford to give the ball away and most of the night we do that very well.
On the large contingent of Arsenal fans at the game…
It adds a lot, it is incredible, the growth and it feels like it is only Arsenal fans tonight. The momentum we have around the women’s team and the supporters and how it feels like it is growing, it is phenomenal. Each one of them is such a massive part of the growth and prosperity we have to grow going forward.
On whether having a big fan base puts more pressure on him…
If expectation is pressure, yes. But I view that as a privilege, I would much rather be here trying to achieve dreams that are shared by many. It also means when we play well and win, lots of people are happy. So that is nice, when we win, it is probably the most amount of people that is happy. That is a pressure but we like it.
14.D’Angelo; 15.McCabe(c) (28.Ilestedt ‘71), 5.Beattie (6.Williamson ‘61), 27.Codina, 7.Catley; 21.Pelova (10.Little ‘71), 32.Cooney-Cross; 24.Lacasse, 12.Maanum (11.Miedema ‘79), 19.Foord (9.Mead ‘61); 25.Blackstenius.
Unused; 1.Zinsberger, 2.Fox, 23.Russo, 40.Williams.
Thank you, Tim, we have enough time to win.
That was really thrilling to watch.
It wasn’t exactly like Reading rolled over and let us play them out of the park.
Was a bit frustrated with Stina’s losing possession in some phases of play but she got an hatrick so I can’t complain too much. Pelova full of guile and hardworking as has become a norm for her recently, KCC is definitely one for the future. Lacasse was absolutely smoking although she wasn’t as effective when switched to the left.
Williamson to Mead! Nuff said….