Stina Blackstenius scored the winning goal in extra-time to help Arsenal Women produce one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Continental Cup. The Sweden international completed a deft move to seal a well-earned 1-0 victory at Meadow Park after a goalless first 90 minutes. The final will now take place at Selhurst Park on March 5 with Jonas Eidevall’s team taking on either West Ham or Chelsea. Sandy MacIver produced a wise save to deny Laura Wienroither a one-on-one for Arsenal, and Sabrina D’Angelo stopped Chloe Kelly from scoring against her former team, the Women’s Euros. Lina Hurtig’s close-range strike against the crossbar in regulation time was the closest either team came to ending the scoreless tie.
In the latter moments of regulation, Arsenal began to gain momentum, but a combination of careless finishing, including a bad Hurtig header, and a few astute saves forced the game into extra time. Three minutes into the extra session, the home team made a breakthrough thanks to a goal from Blackstenius, who was put in charge of scoring after Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema both suffered serious knee injuries. Blackstenius headed in a Hurtig cross. The two clubs will now play again in the Women’s Super League on Saturday morning, and Arsenal will now be hoping for a similar outcome.
“Stina was performing admirably in her position, as evidenced by the fact that the images she took today are so central. We entered a phase when Stina was working a little bit too hard on the sides outside and she had a few games where she didn’t get the opportunity to score either,” Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall said. “It has been a case of positioning Stina more centrally, in front of the goal and having more faith that the ball would go there rather than going too early. You can see that she took advantage of four or five excellent opportunities today, and she is doing an excellent job. People at West Ham aren’t aware of that since they are concentrating on other things, but I can see it.”
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