In a tie between two of Europe’s biggest winners, Arsenal Women quest for a second straight UCL trophy was stymied in dramatic fashion with a 2-1 defeat at Meadow Park by a clever OL side
The Two Halves
The match began with elevated tempo in the opening exchanges. Arsenal were looking to assert dominance on the match. They took an early opportunity to score from their first talking point of the match. In the 7th minute, a determined Beth Mead held the ball on the edge of the Olympique Lyonnais penalty area. Then slipped a perfectly timed pass into the path of Alessia Russo who struck with a side-foot left-footed finish past the dive of the Olympique Lyonnais goalkeeper Franci, Endler. A positive start for Arsenal and a goal to settle them into the match.
Yet, the game took a sharp turn in the 18th minute. Arsenal women goalkeeper, Daphne van Domselaar, in a good situation to manipulate the ball out from the back. She rushed a pass straight into the area of Melchie Dumornay at the edge of the penalty area. The Haitian international controlled the wayward pass before rolling the ball into the net to tie the match.
Lyon’s Edge
Lyon’s pressure kept on shaking Arsenal’s rear guard. Moreover, just five minutes later, the visitors cashed in on yet another expensive mistake. Van Domselaar fed the ball out to Mariona Caldentey, who instantly turned into trouble and was dispossessed. When Katie Reid’s rebound headed clearance fell to Dumornay on the box-edge, the Lyon striker hammered a beautiful turn-around strike into the net.
The fight was brutal. They even claimed the sprints and overall distance were increased by “20%” versus a regular league game. After the interval, Arsenal was desperate to get back into the game but really struggled to find a way through the well-disciplined Lyon defense. Caitlin Foord nearly found the net for Arsenal late on, but her effort went just wide and that was pretty much one of two or three good chances for the hosts.
Acknowledging the “Blip”
The result extends Arsenal’s winless run to four matches, a dip in form that striker Alessia Russo openly acknowledged. “I think at the moment we’re in a bit of a blip but we’re aware of that,” Russo told Disney+ after the match. “We’re sometimes letting teams get attacks on us by our own mistakes. We need to take accountability”.
Manager Renee Slegers pointed to the fine margins at the highest level. “Everyone’s working really hard to find that final action, that final detail,” Slegers said. “It is about margins but it will always be about margins at the highest level. That’s what we’re looking at”. She also noted that her team allowed Lyon to “dictate how the game looks” for too many minutes, rather than imposing their own style of play.
The gap left by the injured defender Leah Williamson was very noticeable. The analysis pointed out that without her talent of playing slicing passes through the enemy’s defense the team was not able to create any offensive play at all. This compelled some other players like Caldentey to retreat much deeper in order to get hold of the ball, which in turn broke Arsenal’s much-vaunted forward momentum.
Author’s Opinion
The team needs to come together again pretty fast. They have a Women’s Super League match against Brighton at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Then they need to travel to face Benfica in the Champions League next Thursday. Losing to Lyon was a setback but the new league phase format provides a chance to make up for it. Arsenal women will be looking to relive last season’s story when an initial loss to Bayern Munich was eventually crowned with a UCL trophy.
As featured on GoonerNews.com
