Arsenal defeated Championship side London City Lionesses 4-0 away to set up a semi-final at home against Aston Villa on Wednesday, March 6th.
For this postponed game from last week, Arsenal were without Emily Fox, who had travelled to the United States as she has been called up for the Gold Cup tournament.
Cloe Lacasse and Sabrina D’Angelo, who are selected with Canada, will travel after the Manchester United game, as the Canadian team have been kind enough to let their players stay with their team for a few extra days.
With Hurtig, Ilestedt, and Miedema injured, Jonas Eidevall gave an opportunity to two youngsters to sit on the bench for the game – Vivienne Lia and Madison Earl. Lia travelled earlier this season with the squad to Sweden for the UWCL qualifying round 1.
Sarah Bouhaddi also made also her first appearance on the bench. Overall that is 29 players who have been named on teamsheets this season, with 25 setting foot on the pitch.
The starting XI on Wednesday was Zinsberger; McCabe, Codina, Wubben-Moy, Catley; Pelova, Wälti, Little; Lacasse, Blackstenius, Foord.
Obviously the team was named with Saturday’s League game against United in mind, and also aiming at giving game time to those who had not had much in previous fixtures.
Overall, we saw a team playing against a low block with a lot of improvement if we can compare to what we saw in previous games.
There were more penetrative runs in the central area, the full-back also stayed forwards and help the attacking players more. London City Lionesses are a championship side, so it is easier to play around them than a WSL side, but it certainly looked like something is moving forwards tactically.
Coming next is a key Women’s Super League game at Emirates Stadium on Saturday lunchtime. The game is close to a sell-out.
Arsenal are four points clear of Manchester United, in the battle for the third place that is qualifying for the Women Champions League round 1. A win would push United far away from Champions League qualification.
In the meantime, the top two teams will play each other on Friday evening, with Chelsea hosting Manchester City. Arsenal could therefore gain points on one or both of those teams by winning on Saturday.
Players will then go on international duty and will be back in the League for the North London Derby at the Emirates Stadium, except for those at the Gold Cup, who could be back a week later.