Aston Villa v Arsenal Women at Villa Park, on Sunday night, was delayed from an 18:45 to a 19:30 start, due to the Arsenal team being delayed in traffic. But when it did kick-off, what a game it was!
I must admit to being a little nervous through the first half. Arsenal Women were dominant in possession, but seemed to be up to their old tricks of failing to find the back of the net. Our Gunners created chance after chance, but couldn’t seem to get through Aston Villa’s low block. Aston Villa defended excellently in the first half and the Villa keeper, Anna Leat, did make some excellent saves.
Unfortunately, Arsenal were punished for not converting any of those chances, when it was Aston Villa that opened the scoring in the 36th minute. The Villans went 1-0 up against our Gunners, with an excellent goal from Ebony Salmon, after a great counter-attack by Villa. The score remained the same at half-time.
In the second-half our Gunners seemed like a different animal. They were on the attack constantly. Pelova levelled the scoring at 1-1 after a great shot from Russo was parried out by Anna Leat. I must say Anna Leat, who was between the sticks because 1st choice keeper, Daphne Van Domselaar, is out injured for the remainder of the season, was on form and made a lot of great saves.
In the 84th minute, Lotte Wubben-Moy headed home a delivery in from Russo to score Arsenal’s 2nd goal of the night. 2 minutes later Stina Blackstenius, who came on as a sub in the 2nd half, slipped inside the box but quickly righted herself to score goal number 3.
What changed so dramatically for our Gunners in the second half? Eidevall had this to say, after the game:
“We said let’s not review what happened in the first half, let’s look into the future and paint a picture of what is going to be for us to be successful. I think we did that well, big credit to the players because they problem solved, they were solution oriented, cool under pressure in the second half. We were so methodical and we kept on believing that if we didn’t convert, we would create more chances. That was a really high performing team in a pressure situation.”
Did you enjoy the game Gooners?
Michelle M
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