It’s easy to look at the scoreline in Wednesday’s game — a futile 1-0 Chelsea victory thanks to a stoppage time goal, in a game in which they needed to score twice — and say Arsenal were comfortable.
But Arsenal had several nervy moments throughout this tie: in the first 15 minutes at the Emirates when Chelsea twice hit the woodwork at 0-0, in the last 15 minutes at Stamford Bridge when Chelsea were denied by some outstanding Daphne van Domselaar saves, and various other moments in between.
A victory over Chelsea means more than anything to Arsenal — you can make the case that this is the fiercest rivalry in European women’s football — but they must also remember that this Chelsea side is at their lowest point for a decade, floundering badly in the Women’s Super League and seemingly in need of a summer rebuild. Arsenal got away with some sloppiness here, and their opponents in the semi-final, Lyon or Wolfsburg, may not be so forgiving.
This was an attack-minded XI from Renee Slegers, presumably designed to dominate the game and exploit space on the break. Slegers could have played only one striker and added Frida Maanum to the midfield. Instead she continued with Alessia Russo playing off Stina Blackstenius.
Russo is an unusual player in that No 10 role: outstanding at shielding the ball and turning past her marker, usually Keira Walsh, but not particularly effective at what comes next. On at least five occasions here she rolled past an opponent and then overran the ball or played a wayward pass. As a consequence, Stina Blackstenius was rarely involved, aside from having a late goal disallowed, in the latest instalment of her long-running battle against the offside flag.
Russo often overran the ball or played a wayward pass in Wednesday’s game (Warren Little/Getty Images)
Russo and Blackstenius can be an effective combination, of course. They were crucial in giving Arsenal their 3-1 aggregate lead in the first leg, and Arsenal won this competition last year with a memorable 1-0 victory over Barcelona, after Blackstenius was unleashed to exploit tired Barcelona legs in the closing stages. The key that day was using them together at the right moment, when the game became open.
Here, Arsenal might have benefited from a more cautious approach. For all the attackers on the pitch, they didn’t offer much going forward. “I don’t think Arsenal created a lot apart from at the end of the game when we were pushing hard and we left spaces,” said Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor. “We created a lot first half, we could have scored three goals, we had big chances in the first half and second half. We only scored one, and that’s why we haven’t qualified for the semi-final.”
Down the flanks, Olivia Smith’s touch was often poor and Caitlin Foord attacked with vigour rather than precision, although both fulfilled their defensive duties well.
Indeed, this XI can defend impressively, albeit in certain types of situations. They are compact and difficult to play through. They play a high defensive line and therefore use speed at the back to cope against through-balls. It is notable that, last week, Slegers substituted Laia Codina at half-time, bringing on Taylor Hinds at left-back and moving Katie McCabe inside into an unfamiliar centre-back role. Codina didn’t seem have the mobility to play against Chelsea’s speed and was taken out of the firing line. Here, when Steph Catley — back from Asian Cup duty — limped off injured shortly before the break, Slegers went for the same solution and left Codina on the bench.
Codina was introduced late on, when Arsenal were being peppered with crosses. This isn’t their strong suit: Barcelona didn’t test them enough in this sense in Lisbon last year, but then that’s not their game. Chelsea did it more here. Sjoeke Nusken repeatedly made good runs to meet crosses, and eventually got Chelsea’s winner/consolation. Leah Williamson will hopefully be back for the semi-finals, but she’s another who is about positional play and mobility, but looks less comfortable aerially.
Slegers acknowledged some of the defensive concerns after the game: “Of course we wanted to stop them from getting chances. In an ideal world there’s no shots…. we’re going to look at this and reflect and see how we can be better in different moments.”
Sjoeke Nuesken scored a late goal that gave Chelsea a brief glimmer of hope (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
What Arsenal do have, though, is strength-in-depth, and adaptability. McCabe has looked like a natural centre-back when twice asked to deputise there. January signing Smilla Holmberg came on to good effect as a right-sided midfielder at the Emirates and a right-back at Stamford Bridge, and her run and cross provided the assist for Blackstenius’ disallowed goal. Beth Mead and Chloe Kelly, meanwhile, are established game-changers from the bench.
It must also be acknowledged that the difference in support at these two matches was incredible — never mind the difference in home attendance, Arsenal appeared to take around ten times the away following to Stamford Bridge as Chelsea did to the Emirates last week. Arsenal tend to draw an excellent attendance for the Champions League semi-finals, played on a weekend.
This will be their third semi-final in four seasons. Arsenal know how to win the Champions League, of course, but much as their success over Barcelona in the final last year was fully merited on the day, they also had to fight back from difficult situations earlier in the knockout stage, after a 2-0 loss away on Real Madrid’s muddy pitch and a 2-1 home loss to Lyon.
Clearly, they have comebacks in their locker. But Slegers’ priority should be avoiding those situations in the first place, and that might mean a different system in the semi-final.