Zinsberger; McCabe, Wubben-Moy, Codina, Catley; Pelova, Wälti; Lacasse, Little, Foord; Blackstenius
Substitutes: D’Angelo, Bouhaddi, Williamson, Cooney-Cross, Maanum, Mead, Russo, Lia, Earl
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Arsenal are through to the semi-final of the Conti Cup after beating London City Lionesses 4-0.
Jonas Eidevall made seven changes to the team that lost against Manchester City last weekend, with Manu Zinsberger, Steph Catley, Lia Wälti, Laia Codina, Cloé Lacasse, Stina Blackstenius and Kim Little all coming into the lineup.
First Half
Arsenal started brightly, with Caitlin Foord having a powerful shot saved in the opening minute.
Then, the FA Player stream went down, meaning that we can only imagine what happened, though at one stage, Caitlin Foord did have a shot from range that just went over. There was not, though, a goal.
Luckily, a stream came back as Arsenal took the lead on 39 minutes. Katie McCabe’s outswinging corner was headed back towards goal by Stina Blackstenius, where Lacasse was on hand to head home from close range. 1-0.
On the stroke of half time, Arsenal had a chance for a second. Blackstenius stole onto Emma Mukandi’s underhit backpass, and as she went around Grace Maloney, she was taken down by the London City goalkeeper for a penalty. Kim Little stepped to the spot, and sent Maloney the wrong way. 2-0.
Second Half
Eidevall made a triple substitution on 54 minutes, with Mead, Maanum, and Cooney-Cross replacing Foord, Little and Pelova. Shortly after, Lacasse put Arsenal’s progression into the semi-final beyond doubt.
Manu Zinsberger’s clearance was flicked on into the path of Blackstenius. Her cross found Mead, who flicked the ball to Maanum, who then flicked the ball onto Lacasse, who rasped her shot into the corner of the net. 3-0.
On seventy minutes, Russo came on for Blackstenius. Her impact was immediate. Patient possession saw Arsenal work the ball side to side, looking for an opening. Mead passed to Maanum on the right, and Mead’s run created space for Maanum to cross for Russo, who leapt above the defender and set her header under Maloney to make it 4-0.
Maanum then nearly added a goal of her own. Lacasse ran onto a long ball, set the ball back to Maanum, and her well struck shot was straight at Maloney, who saved comfortably.
Eidevall made his final change on 82 minutes. Vivianne Lia made her debut, coming on for Katie McCabe. Lia, an attacker, went to the left hand side, with Lacasse moving to right back.
Arsenal had been camped in the London City half for the majority of the game, and with the gap in quality telling, the two centre backs were even higher as the match took on the intensity of a training session. Lia flashed some skill and quality on the left side as the match entered 6 minutes of stoppage time.
From a set piece, Arsenal were close to making it 5, as Mead’s delivery was headed onto the bar by Codina.
You make it sound more exciting than it was to watch, Tim! Ponderous yet again but we were simply too good for LCL. We did what we needed to and have made the semi-final. We will certainly need to up our game against Villa! The take away from tonight was that young Lia looks lively down the wing. She could have come on a bit sooner to give her a few more minutes once the game was out of reach.
Oh yes I forgot, it was sad to see Dan Carter trying her best but with zero support from her team mates. What her career could have been without those injuries!
Tim = Aidan
Sorry Aidan, didn’t look at the credit just get so used to Tim doing the write up especially since he’s a local boy to this ground.
I couldn’t connect at all on FAplayer, but got most of the second half on a YouTube stream. I agree with the word “ponderous”, and I worry that we won’t see pre-injury Beth Mead again.
If you thought that was ponderous, can I suggest you pop over to the FA Player and relive the Chelsea-Crystal Palace game from the weekend…
Thanks, Aidan.
Not silky, not desperately creative, but we got there and didn’t concede.
Well, that was certainly a pitch that looked like it had been underwater recently. Surprised by some comments about the performance – a team of pretty experienced players sat in a very low block with little obvious ambition to attack is always going to be difficult, especially on a surface that could make a motionless ball bounce.
Enjoyed the analysis and the comments from our bloggers, especially the prolific Fun Gunner and Peter.
I was unable to access the FA Player, like so many it seems – hence a shortage of comments upon this game.
Disagree with Collibosher that Meado won’t return to her best, in time.
Crucial game on Saturday vs MU, where a win should secure CL qualification. I hope the selection of our starting 11 concurs with the opinions in our blog about the London game last night.
And the increase in taking shots at goal.
I disagree with me as well. At least I’m hoping I’m wrong. A fully-fit and fearless Beth makes all the difference in dealing with these defences.
Always interesting to go to a new ground (at the second attempt!) It was a bit of a turgid watch but we did what we needed to do. It was good to see Laia Codina play a full 90 minutes. I thought her positional play was very good, anticipating very well where she needed to be. Will wait and see how she copes with one-on-one situations against top-class attackers. Cloé was our POTM. I was right behind her second goal. Sometimes a goal just sounds right: the contact between boot and ball and the noise a spinning ball makes against… Read more »
Indeed, Jonas brought Cloe in as cover for Caitlin and Meado. Both are struggling at the moment for different reasons and yet Cloe finds herself as an unused substitute in a game we are chasing. “Illogical” as a certain Star Trek character would say!