It was an afternoon of missed opportunities for Arsenal as they fell to defeat in the first leg of their Women’s Champions League semi-final. Melchie Dumornay’s late winner silenced the 40,000-strong crowd after Mariona Caldentey’s penalty had cancelled out Kadidiatou Diani’s opener for the visitors.
Arsenal’s manager, Renee Slegers, maintained belief in her side’s ability to turn the tie around after they recovered from an impressive first-half performance from the visitors.
“It’s a high-level opposition so the tempo is higher and you know you’ll get punished if you make mistakes,” the Arsenal manager said. “We had to settle into the game and create a belief while we were playing.
“We grew into it from that perspective. We probably should have scored at least one more in that phase when you are at the Emirates against such a strong team. We worked hard to get that goal and it was just disappointing they scored very quickly.”
Joe Montemurro returned to his former stomping ground in north London with a side high in confidence. The eight-times champions are the only side unbeaten in the competition, scoring 25 times and conceding two on the way to the final four.
The fact that there was no space in the starting lineup for the all-time Champions League goalscorer, Ada Hegerberg, illustrates the potency of this Lyon attack. The dynamic trio of Tabitha Chawinga, Dumornay and Diani started, having amassed 11 goals between them in this competition.
Arsenal have been creatively brilliant at times recently and they returned here afterputting five past Leicester in midweek. They were given a big boost with the return to fitness of Alessia Russo who replaced Stina Blackstenius up front.
The hosts’ nerves were evident as they struggled for rhythm. Loose passes, poor touches and an early yellow card for Caitlin Foord set the tone for much of the first half while Lyon showed their maturity, patiently lying in wait for their chance.
Danielle van de Donk had the first significant opportunity, firing into the side-netting. The visitors did not have to wait too long for their breakthrough, however. Beating Arsenal’s high press, Diani raced on to Ellie Carpenter’s through-ball before finishing with aplomb. The offside flag gave the hosts only a short reprieve with VAR showing Emily Fox had played her onside by inches.
Lyon had found their groove with their front three and Diani in particular, caused problems. Arsenal did have a huge opportunity when Frida Maanum sent a free header wide before both sides hit the woodwork.
A rejuvenated Arsenal took the game to Lyon after the break and they continued to grow in confidence. A glove from Christiane Endler denied a certain goal from Foord before Russo’s follow-up was blocked on the line.
Missed opportunities became the theme of the afternoon for the Gunners as Mead headed over from an unmarked position and Maanum did the same minutes later.
The hosts’ equaliser came through the help of VAR. As a corner flew in, Endler connected with Leah Williamson’s head rather than the ball. It was missed by everyone bar the video assistant who called Alina Pesu to the monitor to confirm the penalty decision. The noise reverberated around the Emirates as Caldentey stepped up to coolly convert.
Their joy lasted a mere four minutes, however, as Lyon struck back. A turn of speed from Dumornay allowed the young Haitian to slice through Arsenal’s backline and restore her team’s lead.
Slegers knows her side have work to do to for the second leg, but she drew on her side’s previous success in Lyon as motivation to turn things around next Sunday. “Arsenal have done it before against Lyon away,” she said. “It’s going to be a pitch, 11 v 11, good grass and we have all the opportunities to win that game.”