Frida Maanum scored a screamer to help Arsnel Women produce one of the comeback football scores of the weekend in the Women’s Champions League. On a 14-game winning streak, the Frauen-Bundesliga leaders held a 1-0 first-leg lead over the Gunners thanks to a Lea Schuller header, but the resurgent Londoners delivered a far more ruthless and clinical performance on home turf, scoring twice within the opening 26 minutes. Maanum scored the game’s first goal with a rocket into the top left-hand corner of Maria-Luisa Grohs’ net (20), which was set up by an instinctive Leah Williamson flick before a determined Katie McCabe evaded her defender and dinked a cross towards Blackstenius, who finished with a towering header (26).
At the break, the game became much more level, with Arsenal also dealing with the loss of captain Kim Little to injury early on, but their backline stayed tight and resolute, keeping Bayern at bay until Caitlin Foord wasted a golden opportunity to seal the tie with 20 minutes to go. Eidevall’s team will now face Wolfsburg in the Champions League final on June 3 after missing numerous more golden opportunities to increase the lead.
The margin of victory might have been even larger except for Grohs’ excellent goalkeeping and some sloppy finishing from Arsenal’s forward line. Because of Little’s early departure, deputy captain Williamson, who was celebrating her 26th birthday, was pushed farther forward, and that positional adjustment contributed to the home team’s well-worked opener. The defender-turned-midfielder played a delicate ball into the path of Maanum on the outskirts of the box, and she bent in a magnificent strike for her fifth Champions League goal of the season.
Bayern, who have only conceded four league goals this season, was powerless to prevent the Gunners from increasing their lead before the half-hour mark when McCabe made her way to the byline and Blackstenius nodded in from close range. In the second session, Grohs kept the visitors in the game by saving a point-blank header from Blackstenius before Lotte Wubben misjudged Moy’s cross and cannoned back off the crossbar. After being rolled in expertly by Maanum 12 yards from goal, Foord curled a fantastic chance over the crossbar.
McCabe walked off late in the game, adding another injury concern for Eidevall, but the Swede will be relieved his Continental Cup champions have at least two more games to add to their already busy schedule as they seek a historic first European final since 2007.
“Reaching the Champions League semi-finals has been a long-term goal. I’m overjoyed that we’ve advanced to the semi-finals. It’s a tremendous accomplishment that we are quite proud of – I told the players before the game that if we hit everything perfectly, we have the potential to beat any team,” Arsenal Women’s head coach Jonas Eidevall said. “It doesn’t guarantee it’ll be simple or that we’ll be able to accomplish it every time. But we now have the capability. So, if we have that, wouldn’t it be amazing and lovely if we could carry it to another stage of this tournament to test how powerful our wings are and how high we can fly together? We accomplished this today, and it is a proud occasion for the entire club. We can beat any team if we hit it correctly. It also implies that putting on consistent shows takes a lot of effort. Nothing is taken for granted by me. We must deal with any scenario and give it our all.”
“Congratulations to Arsenal, who performed admirably in both legs. They were the better team today, which is OK. We did something we don’t usually do today. We handed the ball away far too easily,” Bayern Munich Women’s head coach Alexander Straus said. “We had warning signals for the first goal. That we are unable to adjust to the situation is disappointing. They were aggressive with their press. We could have pushed back and explored the space more directly. We didn’t do it in the correct order. We’ve won 14 games in a row. We lose a little confidence after scoring, which is unnecessary. We must maintain our bravery, but we have done so. To be honest, we were a little nervous. Today is a difficult day for us, but we don’t have time to dwell on it. We’re leaving now. That’s unfortunate.”
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