Arsenal secured a second-half 1-0 win over hapless Juventus to safely advance to the knockout stages of the Women’s Champions League and end Juve’s chances of advancing.
The result also ensures that all three England teams, including Chelsea and Manchester City, will advance to the quarter-finals of this year’s competition.
However, this was far from Arsenal’s daily life. Just a week ago the Gunners had won 4-0 against the Italian side and were vastly superior at both ends of the pitch, but everything about the fixture at the other end felt labored and tense.
Caitlin Foord made a superb save from former Arsenal man Pauline Peyraud-Magnin to keep out a shot from distance, but little else was effective, which led to the introduction of Stina Blackstenius, Beth Mead and Lina Hurtig to create better openings.
Congratulations to Lina Hurtig for scoring the winner in the 89th minute.
The latter immediately pounced on a pair of header opportunities to break the deadlock, but inadvertently set them both up wide.
But Solas arrived in the 89th minute. Blackstenius’ cross deflected off Martina Lenzini and landed neatly at the feet of Hurtig, who joined Arsenal from Juve in 2022, and she scored.
Like the performance, the winner was poor, but Arsenal advanced from Group C with Bayern Munich with two games remaining, guaranteeing one of the two qualifying places.
Slegers is pleased with the submarine’s impact.
arsenal interim director Renee Sledgers In conversation with UEFA:
“I am very happy with the result. We have had very competitive matches in the WSL and the Champions League. This was our last match and we are very satisfied with the result.”
Commenting on the impact of the substitute, who has scored three of Arsenal’s last five goals and four of their last eight goals in this competition, Sledgers added: “We have a very deep team. We know we have the starters, we have the closers, and it has become clear that in a lot of games the guys coming up, the closers, decide the game.”
What’s next?
Arsenal are now unable to play until December 8 as they depart for the international break. Their first match back will be against Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium.
