(Football news) Despite being a goal down in the first leg, Arsenal Women secured qualification into the semi finals of the Women’s Champions League with a 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich at the Emirates Stadium. Goals from Frida Maanum and Stina Blackstenius meant that the Gunners displayed a ruthless and clinical display in front of their home fans, scoring twice in a space of 6 minutes. Maanum scored the opening goal with a strike in the top left corner in the 20th minute before Katie McCabe dinked a cross towards Blackstenius whose towering header doubled the advantage in the 26th minute.
The game was more even in the second half with Arsenal being forced to settle without captain Kim Little but the Gunners showed great resilience and solidity to keep Bayern Munich at bay before Caitlin Foord missed an excellent opportunity to take her side 3-0 up with 20 minutes to go. The result meant that Jonas Eidevall’s side will now take on Paris Saint-Germain or Wolfsburg for a place in the final on June 3rd. In attendance were Arsenal men’s team manager Mikel Arteta and sporting director Edu who sent a congratulatory message to Eidevall after the match.
Speaking after the match, Arsenal Women’s team manager Jonas Eidevall said “It’s been a long-term goal to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League. I am very happy that we’re going to the semi-finals. It’s an incredible achievement that we are so proud of – I told the players before the game, we have the potential to beat any team when we hit all things perfect. That doesn’t mean it’s easy or we can do it every time. But we now have that potential. So if we have that, wouldn’t it be incredible and beautiful if we can bring that to one more stage in this competition, to see how strong our wings are, and how high we can fly together.
“We managed to do that today, that’s a proud moment for the whole club. If we hit it right we can beat any team. It also means there is a lot of work going into performances to be consistent. I don’t take anything for granted. We need to deal with every situation and do our very best. I got a very nice message from Edu after the game. The support from the whole club is magnificent. There is a lot of talk about always acting with class – you really understand the meaning of that when you’re inside the organisation. It’s ingrained and it spreads. Communication and belief from them is amazing.”
Bayern Munich head coach Alexander Straus said “Big congratulations to Arsenal, they have been really good in both legs. Today they were the better team and that is okay. Today we did something that we normally don’t do. We gave away the ball too easily. The first goal, we had warning signs. That is disappointing that we cannot adapt to the situation. They went high with their press.
“We could have pushed back, and gone more direct to explore the space. We didn’t do that in the right order. We’ve had 14 wins in a row. We lose a bit of confidence after the goal and that doesn’t need to happen. We have to keep being brave, but we stopped that. We were a bit shaky, to be honest. Today is a tough day for us but we don’t have time to dwell. Now we’re out. That is sad.”
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