Arsenal defeated Manchester City 1-0 in the Continental Cup quarter final on Thursday night.

Here’s what we learned from the morale-boosting win.

The Ladies can still beat big teams

Following a series of defeats in the second half of the season in the League (home to Liverpool, City and Chelsea), the team finally managed to beat one of the big teams.

This is an important morale-boosting win ahead of the FA WSL final day and especially ahead of next season.

Note – they beat Chelsea away in the Conti Cup group stage but Chelsea and Arsenal rotated their squad and tactics on the day. If the team can reproduce their away form that yielded no defeats this season and be more consistent at home next season, they will be close to the title once again.

Arsenal went toe-to-toe with City in terms of defensive and physical pressure on Thursday night and also matched them in term of fitness, something they could not do in the league game early in August.

The Stoney/Rose centre back partnership seems to grow stronger as the season goes on

They also know that if they do not perform Sampson and Wubben-Moy are waiting in the wings to take their place next season.

Having Nobbs and Losada back in the midfield made a difference, with Nobbs’ box-to-box energy and Losada patrolling in the central area.

The game was a high intensity match with both sides going full power despite only being given a few days to prepare for this postponed tie. The FA are again to blame for rescheduling the tie at such short notice.

It is likely that both sides will feel the effects of this game on Sunday as recovery time is short and those two teams are competing for the last champions League place. City are at home to Notts County and Arsenal at home to Birmingham.

Arsenal will meet Birmingham again in the Conti Cup semi-final with the date not yet set

The starting 11 was the classical 4-3-3 system:  Van Veenendaal, Scott, Stoney, Rose, Williamson, Bailey, Losada, Nobbs, Carter, Pablos Sanchon, Corredera.

Subs used: Ubogagu for Pablos Sanchon (79), Janssen for Bailey (84) due to injury, Yankey for Corredera (89).

The goal scored by Pablos Sanchon on the 34th minute from a control followed up by a snap volley.