Arsenal qualified for the Conti Cup Final on 31 March thanks to a 4-0 win over Aston Villa at Meadow Park on Wednesday evening thanks to a Stina Blackstenius hat trick and a goal from Frida Maanum. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On targeting the right channel consistently in the first half…
We are playing Villa again soon in this block so I prefer not to go too much into tactical considerations because we play them again in two weeks.
On Blackstenius upfront and Russo starting wide…
It was really important for us to use our full squad because we know we have played a lot of games. Before the international break we played three games in six days then all our players went away and had travel and had tough games, then we return and they play two games quickly again. So you see that as a whole block and this is the culmination of that block, it was important to take decisions and put trust in the squad and give opportunities and that paid off. What I like is that we have Alessia as a wide forward, you get something completely different from Beth Mead and Caitlin Foord. Like you have a real presence on the back post there were a lot of situations coming from that and I like to see that when we play to the strengths and qualities of the players. We can’t always play the same way and we need to adapt to the players we have on the pitch.
On Lia Walti saying the team watched the men’s game on Monday evening and used it as motivation…
Not as a structured thing but when we speak about things and how we play, the way they play and the way they suffocated them for the first 15 minutes and how brave they were in their positioning, I think that is the same thing we speak about and look what happens when you get a complete hit with that way of playing. That definitely inspired us with our players today and it’s such a nice thing when you speak about a one club mentality and being able to take inspiration.
On getting energy from the Meadow Park crowd…
Always, it gives me goosebumps speaking about it. We speak about being consistent as a team and keeping standards high and that is our fans, right? They turn up day in day out, away, at home and we are so happy for our fans to play in a final. We hope we can create something special together again and travel in numbers and make Molineux our home for the day.
On Blackstenius pushing for more starts…
I understand that I am a lucky coach to have so much talent to choose from. Seeing performances like that today I know even more how lucky I am.
On the importance of winning the competition again…
We are Arsenal, we want to compete in every competition we are in. Every competition we are in is very important and we do our best to win it. We are happy to be in a final because that is the starting point when you want to win trophies.
On facing either Manchester City or Chelsea in the final…
I don’t think too much about that, let’s see who wins and who we will play in the final. Both those teams, we have beaten them, they have beaten us. We know it will be an even game whoever we play. It is going to be that gets the best performance on the day and works the best with the margins that is going to win.
On Arsenal being the most successful team in the history of the League Cup…
Arsenal I think is the most successful team in women’s football in England, period. That is a big goal is going to go back to that. That is the biggest thing when I came was to acknowledge that we had the most successful team historically but we had fallen a little bit behind and we needed to invest and push and get back to winning trophies and league titles. Of course going into finals is steps in the right direction. It doesn’t mean we are fully developed yet but you can see with the attendances we draw, we compete and go to finals, we are competing in the league, these are positive signs and we can be encouraged and keep building on them, not just this year but for the future.
1.Zinsberger; 15.McCabe, 6.Williamson(c) (27.Codina ‘62), 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley; 32.Cooney-Cross, 13.Walti (21.Pelova ‘80); 9.Mead (19.Foord ‘62), 12.Maanum (53.Lia ‘89), 23.Russo (10.Little ‘80); 25.Blackstenius.
Unused: 40.Williams, 62.Earl, 86.Bouhaddi.
Carla adjusted his strategy on the second half, but the girls already punched Villa badly, that’s why is very important score when our side is dominant on the match. I like the Stina-Frida combo so much, well done girls.
At last Lessi and Stina together. I must say I rather enjoyed Lessi as wide left with Stina as a conventional No.9. I don’t even believe Villa improved second half, they were shell shocked and it was more a case of we took our foot off the gas to save silly injuries and exhaustion. Good to see Codina starting to live up to her promise too. When Leah and Laura are both fully fit we have a back line equal in quality and depth to the midfield and forwards.
Agreed…I thought Codina was great after coming on.
Save a couple early game passes in previous starts, she has been very good and fun to watch.
I believe she could play anywhere across the back line. Probably at #6 as well.
Standing on the North Bank, the end we were defending in the second half, I had a good view of Laia. Not only does she position herself excellently, but she is very aware of the position of those around her. Whenever she moves to cover an attacker you will see her pointing to show another defender to cover the space she has just vacated.
I noticed that, she is a good director and communicates danger which is what we need with full backs that fly up the touch line and centre backs (even LWM now) that are playmakers from the centre circle. Poor old Manu must get quite lonely at times!
A final, yippie
Great result and performance, Villa so far off the pace of the game, odd what’s happened to them this season. Nice to see a different front 3 causing problems for their defense and thankfully Frida had a more restrained game this time, realising she’s playing with 9 other outfield players. Defensively never really tested too much.
Villa lack of quality depth, I don’t understand why they sold a very good young midfielder to Mancity, if they lack depth, anyway our girls played awesome.