By Cameron Sheath

Arsenal moved up to second place in the UEFA Women’s Champions League table with a strong 3-0 victory over Portuguese champions Benfica and Meadow Lane. After a gutsy win at Spurs on the weekend, this one felt like a real step forward in terms of confidence for Renee Slegers’ team.

The most notable change to Arsenal’s starting 11 was the absence of Leah Williamson, who was replaced by Elisa De Almeida to the right of Steph Catley at centre half. Elsewhere, Taylor Hinds and Caitlin Foord kept their respective places down the left after impressing in the North London Derby on Saturday. Slegers persisted with Olivia Smith at the point of Arsenal’s attack, with Alessia Russo again in the 10, with Geraldine Reuteler making her first Arsenal start on the right.

In the match preview, I mentioned that I couldn’t find team news for Benfica on either club website, or anywhere online. I then noted Benfica winger Nycole Raysler as a player to watch. Raysler, it turns out, didn’t travel with the Benfica team due to injury, and you could argue either way as to whether this impacted Benfica’s chances in the game more or less than it impacted my credibility. Thanks, internet.

First Half

Many saw the weekend’s win at Spurs as a turning point for Arsenal’s stuttering season, but while the home side started this one brightly, there were still some wrinkles to iron out. The Gunners pressed and hurried their guests, and immediately looked to take control of the game, but there wasn’t too much to write home about in terms of goalmouth action.

That changed on 26 minutes, as patient Arsenal build-up led to Georgia Stanway taking the initiative and working a shooting opportunity on her right foot. From the left, the England midfielder move the ball inside onto her right foot and fired a shot across goal, forcing Lena Pauels into an outstretched save to her left for a corner.

Arsenal quickly turned that into another corner, from which Catley found Russo completely unmarked at the back post, but her header is too close to Pauels who reacts well to deny Arsenal again.

Just two minutes later, the home side’s strong start almost blew up in front of their faces, and it was all of their own making. After a scrappy exchange on Arsenal’s right, Kyra Cooney-Cross played an awkward left-footed pass backward, which was neither to Catley, Almeida, or Misa Rodriguez in goal. Whoever the target was, the ball fell into the middle of a gaping hole between the three, with Froya Dorsin pouncing to lob the Arsenal goalkeeper.

Misa was completely helpless to stop the ball flying over her head, but the Norwegian striker put far too much on her effort, which sailed safely over the bar. Huge let off with half an hour played.

Arsenal immediately threatened to make Benfica pay for that missed chance, with Smith finding Russo on the edge of the Benfica area, left of centre. The England striker looked to curl a right-footed effort into the far bottom corner, but her effort was just wide.

Four minutes later, Cooney-Cross found Foord at the back post from a corner, but her Australia teammate couldn’t get over the ball and her header never threatened the Benfica net. That preceded Arsenal’s best piece of play of the game to that point, as the hosts continued to win the ball back in midfield with regularity.

Stanway found Russo just inside the Benfica half, and the striker drove forward with purpose towards the box, before playing the ball left for Foord. Foord then picked out the onrushing Stanway with a brilliant first-time, left-footed pass to the edge of the Benfica area, but before Stanway could work an angle, she was closed down and a promising attack came to nothing.

Just seconds later, though, Arsenal took the lead, with an even more impressive move. Once again, the hosts won the ball back in midfield, with Ona Batlle getting a foot in to divert a loose ball back to De Almeida. Batlle’s intervention sparked a 19-second passage of play in which eight different Arsenal players touched the ball before Russo, the eighth player in that chain, fired home the game’s opening goal.

From Batlle, back to De Almeida, and then right the way across the pitch from right to left, between Reuteler, Cooney-Cross, Catley, and Hinds, who then picked out Foord ahead of her with a first time pass. Foord, also first-time, then moved the ball inside to Russo, who took one touch to open up onto her right foot, and a second to wrap a curling shot low across the Benfica goal and in off the post. 1-0.

That was almost it for the notable first-half action, but for Russo firing an almost identical shot just before half time, but this time from nearer 20 yards out, giving Pauels time to get across and parry wide. Against a well-organised Benfica defence, and with confidence shaky in front of goal, it was important for Arsenal to take something tangible into half time, and almost as important that Russo could find the net. Tick and tick.

Second Half

No changes for Arsenal at half time, but Benfica did replace their captain, Pauleta, who went down injured in the first half.

It didn’t take long for Arsenal to take control of the second period, with Cooney-Cross again setting up Foord, this time with a sumptuous ball over the top from deep, with her compatriot bringing the ball under control neatly. With Foord bearing down on goal, though, right-back Catarina Aamado somehow managed to stretch around Foord with a risky, but perfectly executed, sliding challenge to poke the ball behind for a corner.

In the 56th minute, Batlle ventured forward down Arsenal’s right and worked her way down to the byline before clipping a cross to the back post for Foord. The Australian managed to direct a header back across goal but slightly behind Russo. Benfica scrapped the ball half clear, but only to Stanway on the edge of the box, but the midfielder again took too long to get a shot off.

It was again Cooney-Cross who found the direct pass forward for Batlle on that occassion. As was the case on Saturday, the midfielder really took control of the game in the second half and was finding line-breaking passes almost at will.

It wasn’t long before she was at it again, this time picking out Russo with another brilliant ball over the top, this time from further forward and out towards the right hand side. Like Foord, Russo brought the ball down excellently in front of goal but, once again, Amada was there with some brilliant last-ditch defending.

A minute later, a loose pass from second-half substitute Flourish Sabastine was pounced upon by Smith, who poked it backward to Russo. Russo immediately played forward to Foord on the edge of the box, who fed Smith to her right, and Smith’s deflected shot forced an awkward save from Pauels.

Benfica then paid the price for allowing striker Dorsin to mark Russo from the subsequent corner, as Catley’s delivery found her teammate in the middle of the six-yard box. The England striker just wandered into the middle to meet the ball, followed politely by Dorsin, and barely had to jump to beat three surrounding Benifca players and nod downward past Pauels and into the net. 2-0.

That goal made Russo the all-time leading English goal scorer in the women’s Champions League, overtaking previous record-holder Fran Kirby. As that achievement was announced around the ground, the atmosphere could felt through the TV – incredible noise for such a small ground.

Benfica weren’t in the mood to give up, though, despite having put very little together for the majority of the game. Loose play from Reuteler in her own half gifted possession to the visitors and a square pass across the edge of the box fed Andreia Norton, who fired a rasping shot to Misa’s left, which the Spanish goalkeeper parried well on the stretch.

Breaking through on the counter after Benfica’s corner was cleared, Reuteler almost atoned for that error immediately, calmly rounding the keeper, before seeing her shot cleared off the line by Diana Gomes. Despite Arsenal dominating the game, the determination of Benfica’s defenders in the deperate moments was really impressive throughout.

It wouldn’t be enough, though, as Arsenal added a third with just under 15 minutes of normal time remaining. After Smith forced another good save from Pauels, Arsenal again won possession back in midfield, this time through a Stanway sliding tackle. The midfielder then played a one-two with Russo on halfway before striding forward and sliding a precise pass through to Foord.

As Foord moved across the face of her defender from left to right, she got a toe to the ball before being brought down just inside the area. Amado had timed her slide tackle perfectly to deny Foord 18 minutes earlier, but was undone by Foord’s movement and the accuracy of the pass this time around.

After a brief VAR check and a couple of Benfica substitutions, Russo added her 23rd Champions League goal, planting the ball high to Pauels’ left, with the keeper diving the other way. 3-0.

The final 10 minutes proved fairly uneventful, but Arsenal can feel aggrieved to have been denied a fourth by a questionable offside call, which was backed up by VAR. Smart play down the left in injury time found Russo in behind. Her cross towards Stina Blackstenius was blocked at source, but fell kindly for Foord, who side-footed into the bottom right corner.

The flag then went up, but replays suggest both Russo and Foord were onside in the build up, with the only possible explanation for VAR not interfering being that Russo’s cross was intended for Blackstenius, who was offside when Russo was played through. I haven’t seen the graphic they use for the automated offsides, and maybe I’m wrong, but it looked pretty clear-cut to me, and the cross was surely a separate phase of play.

I don’t know, but thankfully it didn’t matter too much, although Foord deserved a goal for not only this performance, but also her role in the win at Spurs. A 3-0 win, though, and while the Spurs win was important, this performance really looked to have built some confidence, which the team should now be able to turn into a victory against Aston Villa at the Emirates on Sunday.

As always, I’ll be posting a preview ahead of that game, and Paul will be doing the same for the men’s trip to Anfield, so plenty to look forward to. To keep up to date with all of our content each week, you can subscribe, for free, at the top of the page to receive email notifications the second a new article is live. Thanks for reading!