Arsenal defeated Slavia Prague away 4-0 to register a 7-0 win on aggregate and qualify for the Champions League Group Stage, so what comes next?
Vivianne Miedema score her 98th, 99th and 100th goals for the Arsenal on Thursday night, another remarkable achievement for the Dutch striker given that she did it in just 110 games and not one of them was a penalty.
See Vivianne Miedema’s hattrick here
Jonas Eidevall opted for rotation in the game, making five changes from the Chelsea match. He selected the following starting XI: Williams; Patten, Williamson, Wubben-Moy, Catley; Maanum, Little, Iwabuchi; Parris, Miedema, Mead.
Arsenal’s goals were scored by Miedema (3) and a penalty by Little.
The Arsenal manager also made maximum use of his substitution with all four outfield players coming on in the game.
Indeed, Arsenal have made and average of 4.60 substitutions per game this season out of five games.
Revamped Champions League
This is the first year of the new Champions League group stage and extra money for the teams involved. €400,000 Euroswill got to the teams that have reached this point.
Arsenal will be placed in pot two out of four.
Champions League pots:
Pot 1 are the teams that qualified directly through to the Group stage: Barcelona, PSG, FC Bayern and Chelsea.
All other pots are ranked as per UEFA club coefficients.
Pot 2: Lyon, Wolfsburg, Arsenal, Breidablik
Pot 3:Häcken, Juventus, Hoffenhein, Real Madrid
Pot 4: Kharkiv, Servette FC, Køge, Benfica
The team to avoid in pot 1 is obviously the holders, Barcelona. PSG and FC Bayern would be a better draw as PSG are in a rebuilding stage and FC Bayern are certainly beatable.
Arsenal cannot be drawn against Chelsea.
The Pot 3 teams are actually quite strong. Real Madrid have eliminated Manchester City in qualifying round 2, so they are quite decent.
Hoffenheim finished third in the Bundesliga and managed to beat three runner-ups on the way to the Group stages.
Häcken are the Swedish champions and therefore another force to be reckoned with.
The best draw would be Juventus and it would also allow a return to Borehamwood FC for Joe Montemurro, which would also allow the fans to say ‘thankyou’.
Pot 4 is supposedly the weakest pot.
Køge are the Danish champions and could be a threat ,while the other three teams are all beatable.
To recap:
A bad draw would look like Barcelona, Arsenal, Hoffenheim, Køge.
A good draw would be PSG, Arsenal, Juventus, Servette FC.
Champions League Group stage dates
Matchday 1: 5/6 October
Matchday 2: 13/14 October
Matchday 3: 9/10 November
Matchday 4: 17/18 November
Matchday 5: 8/9 December
Matchday 6: 15/16 December
In terms of players eligibility, Arsenal can register Tobin Heath for the Group stages.
All the clubs can register 25 players in the A list and an unlimited numbers in the B list.
Arsenal have 22 players registered right now.
The List A squad for the 12 teams qualifying via round 2 can include players who were not registered for that round.
Also, a player who has been fielded in the preliminary round, round 1 or round 2 is entitled to play for another club from the group stages.
Regarding the B-list, here is the rule: A player may be registered on List B if she is born on or after 1 January 2000 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since her 15th birthday by the time she is registered with UEFA, or for a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period no longer than one year. Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.
It is important to note that Teyah Goldie and Hermione Cull, the two Academy players who are regularly on the bench for the first team, are actually registered on the A list and therefore are part on the 25-player-squad.
They do not fit within the UEFA criteria. For example, Cull was previously registered with Southampton.
The draw will take place on Monday 13 September at 1300 CET at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon.