Arsenal’s lucky escape!
After their thumping of Leicester the other night, the Arsenal women were in Germany for their final Champions League group stage game.
There’s no denying that the women were full of confidence going into the game, but that confidence was soon shot down when they went 1-0 down on the 21st minute after Jule Brand latched onto a through ball to slot into the bottom left corner.
It took 17 minutes for us to level after a Beth Mead shot which was saved and pushed out by the keeper, which fell into the path of Mana Iwabuchi and Hoffenheim’s Laura Wienroither, and although Iwabuchi got a touch, the final touch was adjudged to have come from the Hoffenheim player.
It was 1-1 at the break and out we came in the second half, with very few chances again, and ten minutes after the break it was 2-1 to Hoffenheim after Chantal Hagel’s shot found the back of the net. She soon made it 3-1 two minutes later and the game was done and dusted a further two minutes later after Gia Corley’s header found the top right corner.
Arsenal were the makers of their own downfall after sloppy play countless of times and we rarely threatened Hoffenheim.
I can’t even remember if Viv Miedema touched the ball but at 4-1 it was a case of just having to see the game out without conceding anymore. And so we did!
So we conceded four goals and our opponents scored all five of the goals on the night as our goal went down as an own goal. Despite the loss we still go through to the quarter-finals after finishing second in our group on the same points as our opponents but with a better goal difference.
But you can’t help but feel it will all be in vain because with the form the other teams are in in this competition, we will have to be at the very top of our game to even be able to get through the quarters and given our inconsistency in recent games I for one don’t feel we will get very far.
All eyes will now be on our next fixture against Brighton in the WSL where we will be looking to keep our unbeaten run in the league going!
At least we may have one thing to be happy about this season! Well here’s hoping hey Gooners!?
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
As I said at the very start of the season,being our manager’s first,our main objective should be WSL and domestic cups.it is still too early for the CL but every game against top European opposition is a good experience.anyway job done.
Straight up….wsl first priority
Even Barcelona women dont find it easy at the champions league.
True!even Chelsea got eliminated last night,they got thumped 4-0 by Wolfsburg,that makes it even sweeter!!