Arsenal qualified for the UWCL group stages with a 4-0 win over Hacken at Meadow Park with goals from Lia Walti, Mariona, Beth Mead and Frida Maanum, taking the Gunners to a 4-1 aggregate win. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match, the first two questions are from Arseblog News.
On bringing Lia Walti back into the starting line-up…
Not only the long distance shooting! The reason for it was that it is really important in building against Hacken and exploiting them that we had offensive full-backs and investing there, so we needed to balance that out against a strong counter attacking team. We know that Wally is very good at organising our attacks and our defence. It was basically that, Wally’s qualities in organising and the counter pressure and to be more aggressive with Kim in our pressure, we needed to cover around. I am very lucky, Kyra has started the season tremendously but now I can choose to get some other attributes on the pitch.
On getting Beth Mead into more central positions since Emily Fox signed…
I think we are better structured in our attack than we were a week ago against Hacken and I said that I was disappointed with our performance and that it was a step backwards. Mainly I felt it was a step backwards because our structure was very poor, we lost positional discipline and didn’t get players into the spaces on the non-ball side, especially against a team like Hacken who invest so many players around the ball. Today we are so much better at that. That means sometimes we get Beth inside, sometimes she needs to stay wide. I think today her and Mariona are much better in their decision making on when to stay wide and when to stay inside with the structure we need to have in attack.
On how relieved Eidevall is to qualify for the group stage…
It was really important, we have built a squad to be in this position to compete in the group stage, to compete in the league. One part of the season starts now, that I am really happy for. It is not easy the League Path, it is a tough start to the season, you play knockout football it is small margins, this is a tough opponent but it is also tough placement with playing Man City at the Emirates between the two legs. I think we have been growing with our performances, we have the results we wanted. But we can’t relax, the season starts now for us and we are in the four competitions we want to be in and we want to make the most of that.
On playing Champions League games at the Emirates…
The Emirates is a European stadium, it deserves Champions League football and we can deliver that on the men’s and women’s side I think we give the Emirates the treatment that it deserves.
On building relationships across the pitch…
We built a squad to compete and we need a squad to compete, that will become evident. The playing schedule will be tough and with a lot of travelling and short turnaround times that is why we built this squad and why we have so many great footballers.
1.Zinsberger, 2.Fox (26.Wineroither ‘89), 3.Wubben-Moy, 5.L.Codina, 11.McCabe; 10.Little(c), 13.Walti (32.Cooney-Cross ‘76); 9.Mead (19.Foord ‘66), 23.Russo (12.Maanum ‘76), 8.Mariona (16.Kafaji ‘89); 25.Blackstenius
Unused: 14.van Domselaar, 22.Kuhl, 40.Williams, 53.Lia, 56.Godfrey, 61.Harbert, 62.Reid.
Excellent from players and manager tonight. Time to make the most of dropping the rock of CL qualifying and really push on
Solid all round, fair play to Hacken they looked brighter for the first 15 doing well to kill the hoped Arsenal early momentum. An unexpected first goal, not many was expecting it from the left foot of Walti 30 yards out. After that went it in there was only one winner. Hacken just lacked threat up front, with the back line being sharper and quicker to snuff out the danger of the counter break this time around. Walti providing a more stable base to break up play and to be a springboard to attack. Goals 2 and 3 came at… Read more »
Congratulations to us all! Back to where we belong. Gotta admit it was a nervy watch for me but glad we made it through. Can’t wait for the draw today although I got a feeling we are getting a very strong group. But hey, to be the best, gotta bear the best and asides Barcelona, I really don’t think there’s a team we can’t beat on our good day.
No long analysis from me today although I have plenty to say about certain players. Sometimes, gotta enjoy a 4-0 win and look forward to the next game on Sunday. COYG!
Very enjoyable watch, baring a few stray balls (even from Foxy) it was a good performance. The 2 (under the radar) players, Queen Kimmy and Wally were exceptional as always. Captain Kim has also recovered from her very clever, subtle pinning down of Chloe in the citeh game…… and no one even noticed 😂
Well done to the girls and JE. Despite the pressure we undoubtedly came under at times, the occasional sloppy play and the nonstop rain, I never thought we were in any danger of losing this one. Would have been nice to score directly from a corner, though.
And Lia Wälti is back. All is now in balance in the AWFC universe.
A lot to praise, but I’d like to add that it was another excellent game from Laia Codina.
Seconded. An absolute warrior.
And LWM is continuing to shake off her rustiness. Much more solid defending and contributing more and more to the attack. She’s getting that cross-field pass onto a teammate’s toe thing down to a fine art!
A bit more urgency in this match with less fannying around at the back made it more enjoyable to watch and produced the required result. Credit to Hacken who tried to make a game of it and didn’t come simply to protect their lead although ultimately that is probably what cost them the tie!
For all the criticism directed her way, Zinsberger made 2 excellent saves last night.
Try to make things easier, enough suffering, when it is like this, resolve it in the first game, and this rotation of squad and tactical formation for each game is being very interesting to observe and it seems to be working so far. The girls are performing at a high level.