Arsenal start with Leah Williamson and Lotte Wubben-Moy in the centre of defence flanked by Steph Catley and Laura Wienroither.
The midfield and forward lines are unchanged with Lia Walti, Frida Maanum and Vivianne Miedema in midfield and Katie McCabe, Caitlin Foord and Stina Blackstenius in the front line. Lina Hurtig and Kim Little return to the subs bench.
1.Zinsberger; 26.Wienroither, 6.Williamson(c), 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley; 13.Walti, 12.Maanum, 11.Miedema; 15.McCabe, 19.Foord, 25.Blackstenius.
Subs: 2.Rafaelle, 5.Beattie, 8.Nobbs, 10.Little, 16.Maritz, 17.Hurtig, 18.Marckese, 23.Iwabuchi, 59.Agyemang.
On my way to London, very cold but looking forward to the match. And it’s exactly the team I’d’ve selected!
Poor goal to concede. But injury to Viv looks really worrying, I’m devastated for her
On replay, certainly looks like it should have been called back for offside. The Lyon foward appears to me to be in an offside position when the ball was headed back across.
Awful for Miedema.
Most definitely offsides. Instances like this almost make you want VAR.
Definitely offside and perhaps the only mistake the referee made. Sometimes the decisions go your way and other times they don’t. Given the class of the opposition, I know they have injuries but so do we, Lyon were contained pretty much to speculative long shots that never really troubled Manu. Just one play when our defence switched off for a second cost us the game. It would have been good to see better use of the opportunities we created at the other end though. The commentary team actually said that we often pass up a great shooting chance to try… Read more »
Just before the camera went back on the injured Meidema, I thought I saw her attempt a tackle, realise she hadn’t stretched her leg our far enough to get the ball, then almost as a separate movement, try to stretch her leg out further, although by then, both the ball and player had gone. I wonder if that did it? The other thing, when women players get a stretching-related injury: Before that injury, I don’t think that Viv was quite “on it”. Before Beth Mead’s injury, she seemed a bit off it when compared to the way she started the… Read more »
I am convinced it was that stretch that caused the left leg to go from under Viv. We can only spectulate at this stage what damage has been done until the medics have the necessary scans. There does appear to be some correlation between these ligament injuries and menstrual cycles although the science is still playing catch up to the rapid development of the professional women’s game. Perhaps the dip in performance that you note followed by an injury could be predicted by hormone analysis or more simply asking the player. But then what size squad would you need and… Read more »
Interesting theory.