Arsenal Women have many reasons to be proud after UWCL semi-final defeat by Michelle
Regrettably, Arsenal’s journey in the Champions League came to an end on Monday night following a highly competitive second leg of the semi-finals against Wolfsburg at Emirates Stadium, which concluded with a score of 3-2 (5-4 aggregate).
Despite a valiant effort from Jonas Eidevall’s team throughout the match, in front of a record-breaking sold-out crowd of 60,063 at Emirates, our Gunners were unable to secure a place in the final as Wolfsburg managed to score in the final minutes of extra time. Nonetheless, Arsenal displayed a spirited, resiliently outstanding performance from start to finish.
- Arsenal v Wolfsburg was only the third time in history that a UEFA women’s club semi-final has gone into extra-time – the first since 2009/10 in fact, when Turbine Potsdam and Duisburg (that included Wolfsburg captain Alexa Popp) battled into extra-time. Both those previous ties (the other one in 2002/03 involved Frankfurt and Umeå) ended in a penalty shoot-out, which is exactly where everyone thought this match was heading and, but for the late goal in extra-time from Wolfsburg’s Pauline Bremer, that’s where the match would have gone..
- This was the first ever Arsenal tie in this competition to go to extra time since the first ever Women’s Champions League in 2001/02 quarter-final second leg at Toulouse, when Arsenal Women lost their first knockout encounter in this competition.
- The attendance of 60,063 is a record:
- for attendance at an Arsenal Women match
- for a women’s club game in the United Kingdom
- fourth best attendance ever in the history of the Women’s Champions League – actually the highest UWCL attendance outside of Barcelona’s Camp Nou which has a capacity of over 90,000!.
- Jen Beattie and Alexa Popp are both veterans of the UWCL – both were involved when Wolfsburg won the 2012/13 semi-final between these clubs, but also when Popp’s Duisburg defeated Arsenal in the 2009/10 quarter-final.
- Wolfsburg are into their sixth UEFA Women’s Champions League final (joint-second all-time with Frankfurt) and are aiming for their third title when they meet Barcelona in Eindhoven – Wolfsburg are a great team and Arsenal’s peformance against these giants of the German Bundesliga was admirable to say the very least..
I know everyone’s hurting right now but there is no shame in Arsenal being knocked out of the tournament by Wolfsburg, at this stage in the competition. Maybe it was a dream too far, to hope that our Gunners could reach the Final (particularly given the long list of injured players) but, in reality, they were only a whisker away..
Now, Arsenal need to lick their wounds and climb back into the Women’s Super League ring – they still have a lot to do this season in the WSL as they need to finish in the top 3 to even be involved in the UWCL next season..
COYGW!
Michelle Maxwell
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I bet Jonas Eidevall is kicking himself. If I had my way I’d kick him off the planet. Shows you his inexperience as a coach/ manager. He let a world class player in Mana Iwaduchi. He never knew how to play her the moment he stumbled into Arsenal. It’s fairly well blatant with his treatment of Mana Iwaduchi
Well done Ladies
You made a great effort
Very proud of you
COYG