AWFC vs Brighton match report
The Arsenal Women and Jonas Eidevall travelled down to the seaside on Sunday afternoon for a clash with Brighton that was a must-win for our Gooner Women. Walking away 3-0 winners after a strong performance from our women and keeping the gap to a minimum in our search to catch up to Chelsea and for silverware this season.
The match started off as a very end-to-end game of football, Brighton came out energised and looked ready to go, making very physical challenges and pressing hard and high. 12 minutes in the ball was crossed into the middle of the box and cleared but only a few yards into the path of Stina Blackstenius who at first tried to shoot but completely missed the ball, only to swivel back around and fired the ball into the back of Sophie Baggaley’s net to make it 1-0 after just 12 minutes.
After the first goal, Brighton really looked to try lock their defence down and Arsenal couldn’t seem to get the ball into the box or make a break to attack, Brighton playing very aggressive and pressing our players hard. Russo and Blackstenius started together for the first time and it looked like it kind of bent our formation and system out of shape.
The second half started a lot like the end of the first and Brighton were beginning to look dangerous and were getting a bit more of the ball. Arsenal looked to be the better team but there was a sense of dread around the ground that we were just one goal away from being back on equal terms and there were some close moments there and arguably Brighton were unlucky to not get the equaliser.
Eidevall looked to his bench around the hour mark and things began to open up and Arsenal began to look a lot more comfortable going forward and in the 80th minute Caitlin Foord managed to get herself on the score sheet after Brighton were forced into a mistake by Arsenal’s press, firing a shot from about 30 yards out into the bottom left corner, putting Arsenal Women 2-0 up and in the driving seat.
In the dying minutes of the game, Russo ran onto a throw in down the wing, beating the Brighton defender with pure strength and managed to cross the ball along the ground into the feet of Cloe Lacasse who cut the ball back into the feet of Frida Maanum who calmly placed the ball into the back of the net to make it 3-0.
Walking away with all three points and keeping the gap between us and Chelsea to a minimum.
What’s your thoughts on the game Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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Beautiful girls
A comfortable afternoon’s work in Crawley. The pitch was surprisingly in the best condition I’ve seen it.
Yet again Brighton showed little threat of breaking their home “duck” of scoring against us in the WSL. An aggregate of 0 -16 over last four visits to the seagulls.