After fighting back from 2-0 Arsenal Women fan were left with their hearts broken on Saturday Afternoon in Sweden. Although there were a lot of positives to come out of the game, its left Arsenal Women fans wondering ‘what went wrong?’
Jonas Eidevall’s side looked lost in the first half, and conceded two goals within two minutes of each other in the second half, the game looked done. Eidevall looked to his bench and made some great impact changes throughout the game. Bringing Alessia Russo, Katie Mccabe and Victoria Pelova on in the 60th minute seemed to completely change the mood of the game, all bringing much needed energy onto the pitch and belief back into the team.
Eidevall looked to read the game perfectly and his game management paid off after Russo bagged her first Arsenal goal, assisted by McCabe, to get us back into the game. Shortly after bringing on Jennifer Beattie to play as a makeshift striker and aerial threat also paid off quickly, when she managed to score in the 96th minute of extra time to equalise.
After a late goal in the first half of extra time by Paris put them ahead, we again bounced back with Russo scoring an absolute screamer to put things level again. After fighting so hard to get back our women fell short and were left heart broken, losing 4-2 on penalties.
I don’t want to make excuses but Paris are half-way through their pre-season, already competing against top quality European opposition Ajax and Anderlecht and have also played two pre-season friendlies, meaning they’ve had a lot more time to gel and get some needed minutes into their legs. We haven’t been so fortunate. With Arsenal only playing for the first time on Thursday afternoon against Linkoping, in my opinion, has left us too far behind.
It does leave us to question if UEFA have got it wrong by scheduling the games so close together and so quickly after the World Cup, leaving our players with less time to train, gel together, get fit and potentially opening us up to injuries.
With such a quick turnaround from Thursday, there was a real lack of energy for most of the game and you could tell that we were not where we wanted or needed to be. In the end, I think we did all that we possibly could do to win, but it just wasn’t our day.
What’re your thoughts Gooners? Do you think we could and should have done more?
Daisy Mae
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They could have prevented the careless passing, especially out of defence and there were two players guilty of that in particular. They spent too long passing across the field in the defensive zone and too little on attacking Paris even with a long ball here and there. We have the runners so why not?
I feel sorry for the new players who joined for UWCL action and now have to wait for a season, minimum.
All eideval fault,he should have started with a strong team
UEFA is too blame. Not even a months break after the WWC & the women have to play such important games. Blatant discrimination!!
The leagues could have been brought forward & then play the CL qualifiers. POOR PLANNING FROM UEFA.