Arsenal: Van Domselaar; Fox, Williamson, Codina, McCabe; Little, Wälti; Mead, Mariona, Foord; Russo
Substitutes: Zinsberger, Williams, Catley, Reid, Cooney-Cross, Kühl, Maanum, Kafaji, Hurtig, Godfrey, Lia, Blackstenius
Arsenal have returned to winning ways, beating Vålerenga 4-1 on Matchday 2 of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Emily Fox and Caitlin Foord scored in the first half, before Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo added gloss to the scoreline with two late second half goals.
Renée Slegers, the Interim Head Coach, made one change to Arsenal’s starting lineup, with Laia Codina replacing Lotte Wubben-Moy. More changes had been expected, prior to Jonas Eidevall’s resignation.
Arsenal needed a bright start, and they got off to a fast start. Foord played a one two with Mariona and drove into the box, and while Russo couldn’t get a shot away, Fox, in the centre of the box, finished to give Arsenal the lead 65 seconds into the match. 1-0.
Russo thought she had doubled Arsenal’s lead on 9 minutes, finishing well after collecting a through pass, but she was correctly flagged offside. Thirty seconds, Russo ran onto a long pass from Fox, drove into a box, but shot straight at the goalkeeper from a narrow angle.
McCabe made a hash of a clearance after a Våleranga cross, and Thomsen’s shot needed Van Domselaar’s intervention, with the keeper pushing the shot around the post.
From a corner, Arsenal had a flurry of chances: Little had a shot blocked, and then Russo had two shots pushed away by Enblom. However, Våleranga could not keep Arsenal out, with Foord adding a second goal on 29 minutes. Mariona carried the ball through the middle, and played left to Mead. Her curled shot deflected off Horte and Enblom, and came to the Australian on the goal line, who buried her shot into the roof of the net. 2-0.
Våleranga, though, would pull a goal back on 36 minutes. Codina dallied on the ball, was pressured by Saevik, and lost the ball. With Williamson coming over to help, and there was an easy ball to an open Tvedten, who slotted past Van Domselaar. 2-1.
Williamson had a chance to extend the lead on 41 minutes. Following a corner, Arsenal reset and from the inside-right McCabe played a deep inswinging cross, and Williamson just missed connecting, with Enblom advancing out of goal.
Williamson could’ve added to the lead on the stroke of half time. McCabe’s corner came all the way through, but Williamson couldn’t make a clean connection.
Saevik should’ve equalised on 53 minutes. The forward beat Codina for pace, and when Williamson came to cover, she cut away from Williamson with ease. With just Van Domselaar to beat, she blazed over the bar.
Foord tried to respond, driving through the centre, but having been forced wide, her shot was weakly struck. Williamson then shot from range, but it was down the throat of Enblom, who saved comfortably.
Arsenal were again careless in their own third, with Mariona losing the ball under pressure. Bjelda collected a cutback and from the edge of the box, her shot was deflected behind for a corner. Arsenal were able to clear, but it was a reminder of the danger they faced as long as the lead remained a solo goal.
On 60 minutes, Arsenal made a double substitution. Frida Maanum replaced Beth Mead, and Steph Catley replaced Katie McCabe.
Mariona then had a half chance, but she didn’t get the shot right as she looked to shoot over Enblom. Våleranga looked to counter from the shot, but Foord stopped with a heavy challenge, earning a yellow in the process.
On 78 minutes, Blackstenius replaced Foord.
Blackstenius should’ve settled the game on 83 minutes. She was played through on goal by Maanum, but lost the ball when she looked to go around Enblom. Maanum then had the follow-up blocked.
Codina was booked after taking down Saevick.
Mariona would settle the game on 85 minutes. Maanum and Blackstenius combined, with Maanum collecting Russo’s pass and playing wide to Blackstenius. Blackstenius cut the ball across the box for Mariona, who took a touch and finished powerfully. 3-1.
A minute later, Blackstenius was played through again. This time she went for goal. Her shot was saved by Enblom, and Blackstenius hit the rebound off the bar.
Arsenal made two final substitutions in the first minute of stoppage time, with Katie Reid replacing Codina, and Lina Hurtig replacing Lia Wälti.
Russo scored her first goal since early September to make it 4-1 in the final minute of stoppage time. With lots of space in midfield, Mariona ran onto Hurtig’s header, and played the ball through to Russo whose finish went through Enblom’s legs. 4-1.
Well done.
Codina not at her best. Mariona was brilliant today. DVD should remain between the sticks.
Codina made me nervous every time she was involved. I thought that Maanum gave them something else to think about after she came on, and Caldentey took advantage. Katie Reid had only one brief involvement after she came on in stoppage time, but I have to say that she was as cool as a cucumber. The official PoTM was Fox, and she was good, but I reckon it should have been Caldentey.
Very pleased with many of the performances but I thought Codina had a very poor passing and covering game.
It’s very unlike Codina. She’s been our best defender by far of late . .. maybe her confidence was knocked right back when Jonas decided to drop her for no reason for the Chelsea game .. think Codina is our best CB at the club currently
Mightily impressed with DVD’s ball-playing abilities, and she was very calm with it. Hard to see her getting dropped now.
Not going to disagree but on their goal Manu would have been slated for playing statues.
Yeah, I get your point.
I thought we were calling her Blu-ray 🙂↕️
Yeah! Blu-Ray or DoomSlayer! There’s only one DvD and she is a diminutive midfielder! Regardless of what we call her let’s hope she gets a run in the team as she is still developing and her ceiling is higher than Manu’s.
Van Domselaar is the superior shot-stopper, but she’s been average to awful with the ball – whereas Manu has been almost perfect. Almost gave away one chance today as well.
Seemed a lot more shots on target tonight.
Inevitably we hit the crossbar with one
First goal looked like there was handball just before the shot
I didn’t get to see the game, but the comments give you an idea of how it went. If Codina wasn’t playing well, why didn’t Lotte come in? Nothing against Katie.
Concussion
Lotte wasn’t on the bench. Not sure if it was officially confirmed but I heard it was due to the concussion protocol.
Not sure why suddenly we have all of these concussion incidents. Is there a new health and safety rule where if a defender heads a ball we have to instigate the concussion protocol? I’m not intending to be flippant as player wealthfare is paramount, but we appear to have had two central defenders in as many weeks with suspected concussion after years of playing without such scares.
Just had to say, Nils Lexerod sounds like the name of a DC Cinematic Universe villain.