Disappointed Arsenal ladies to turn focus to domestic league

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WCL: Eidevall proud of Arsenal players despite shock exit

By Our Reporter On Sep 11, 2023 0

Jonas Eidevall remains pround of his players despite Arsenal ladies shock exit from Women Champions league but admits that the defeat to Paris FC and subsequen exit “hurts

Alessia Russo scored her first two goals for the Gunners but was one of two Arsenal players to miss in the shootout after the dramatic match ended 3-3 after extra time.

Eidevall’s side reached the semi-finals of the competition last season which he believes made the defeat more painful.

“Of course it hurts because we had such a good experience in Europe last season and we wanted to build on that. We knew from the beginning this mini-tournament was going to be really tough, for a number of reasons,” he said.

Jonas Eidevall consoles his players at the end

“One is that Paris is a really good team, another part is the really limited preparation time and playing on a 3G pitch that we are not really used to. So we knew there were external factors that were going to make this complicated and you only get one shot.”

Arsenal looked like they might have avoided an upset when they recovered from conceding two goals in as many minutes to Mathilde Bourdieu early in the second half.

Russo, a high-profile summer signing from Manchester United, pulled one back with 10 minutes to go and Jen Beattie headed in an equaliser deep into injury time.

Arsenal pushed for the win in extra-time but had to come from behind again after Julie Soyer restored Paris’ lead.

Russo showed her class by levelling again with a great strike from 25 yards, but Frida Maanum missed a golden chance at the death and the Norwegian and Russo both saw their spot-kicks saved by Chiamaka Nnadozie as Paris won the shootout 4-2.

“When I look at the performance, I think there are good things and bad things,” added Eidevall. “In general, we created enough chances to win the game if we look at it objectively, but we put ourselves in a really difficult situation conceding a goal and directly after that, being wasteful in our possession and giving them their second goal.

“From there the players showed great determination, great heart and great belief. We changed the formation and got the output we wanted from that.