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A hard-fought 3-1 victory over OH Leuven at Meadow Park sent Arsenal through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The visitors tested Renée Slegers’ side when Sara Pusztai cancelled out Alessia Russo’s goal but a penalty from Mariona Caldentey and second from Russo secured the win, earning them a comfortable 7-1 aggregate score.
Confidence is flying high around Arsenal, they are almost at the end of one of the most taxing periods of the season to date. Since the return from the winter break, they have won seven of their nine fixtures and lost just one, featured in five different competitions, lifted the inaugural Champions Cup and now reached the quarter-finals of the Women’s Champions League. It has been a month that will have tested every single one of the playing squad and staff to their limits but one that will have given them belief that they can still challenge on multiple fronts.
This last month, including this playoff encounter with OH Leuven, will have taught Slegers and her players a lot about themselves. They have played brilliantly at times and proven their mettle at others; sometimes accused of not having the stomach for a fight, they have shown that they are capable of digging in when the going gets tough and finding ways to win. Slegers was keen to praise her team’s resilience ahead of this encounter, after a five-week stretch that has seen them have to handle a game every three or four days, adapt to rotation in the squad and deal with the contrasting styles of football that their opponents brought to the table.
They were always expected to come through this playoff against OH Leuven unscathed. The mismatch in resources and experience between the current holders and the plucky newcomers was clear to see from the outset, particularly since they had already beaten them comfortably in the league phase back in December.
Manchester United's Sandberg sidelined by knee injury
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Manchester United will be without the left-back Anna Sandberg for anything between four and eight weeks, the United head coach Marc Skinner has revealed, before the second leg of their Women's Champions League knockout playoff tie against Atlético Madrid on Thursday.
The Sweden international has been in excellent form this season but a knee injury means she would be very likely to miss the quarter-finals against Bayern Munich, if Manchester United were to progress past Atlético. United lead 3-0 from the first leg.
"There's a little bit of a tidy up that needs to be done around her meniscus," said Skinner, who is hoping that Sandberg will return for the last "three or four games" of the season, adding: "She will be around four to six to eight weeks, that's the timeframe we've been given. Best is four, middle is six. Obviously worst case is eight.
"We're hopeful we can get it to six [weeks]. But we won't take any risks. She's a young player so we'll make sure she's rehabbed effectively."
Jayde Riviere and Fridolina Rolfö are also doubts for the visit of the Spanish side, while the England midfielder Ella Toone is "doing really well" but remains sidelined with a hip injury. Skinner said the club are aiming to welcome Toone back in time for March's local derby against the Women's Super League leaders Manchester City. Tom Garry
Photograph: Poppy Townson/Manchester United
That is perhaps the one flaw with the playoff stage of this re-imagined Champions League – the fact that with just 18 teams featuring in the league phase, the probability is that qualified teams will meet for a second time at this stage of the tournament. It, therefore, perhaps led to a less enticing set of games for the two English sides involved, than there perhaps could have been.
The Gunners had got the job done in the away leg, coming away from Belgium with a professional 4-0 win but there were signs in this second leg that some complacency had set in.
That will have frustrated Slegers who had emphasised the need for her players to pay attention to detail against the visitors who have proved their courage in their first ever outing in this competition. Despite taking an early lead through Russo, the visitors had managed to test the Gunners’ changed defence, running in behind and finding a deserved equaliser through Sara Pusztai.
The context for Arsenal’s issues on this occasion were key. The conditions in Borehamwood were atrocious. The incessant rainfall made the pitch boggier with every minute that was played while the swirling wind caused obvious problems for anything played off the ground.
Slegers had made another three changes to the already much-altered side that had won the week before. Half of the defensive unit was changed with Lotte Wubben-Moy and Smilla Holmberg coming in for Leah Williamson and Emily Fox. There was an evident lack of communication which perhaps explained why they were being caught out by the pace of the Leuven attackers.
Things improved after the break as Arsenal regained the lead thanks to a quintessential penalty conversion from Caldentey.
It was a goal that took the sting out of Leuven’s tail and Russo added another as the game to a close. It saw the Gunners cruise through to the quarter-finals and a hotly-anticipated encounter against London rivals Chelsea next month.
