A laboured Arsenal sunk to a 1-0 defeat away to BK Häcken in the first leg of their Champions League Round 2 encounter. Tabitha Tindell’s second half strike was the difference on a night of few clear-cut chances to give Mak Lind’s side a famous win
The Arsenal manager, Jonas Eidevall, was left to rue his team’s lack of creativity as they produced just four shots on target across the match. “It’s always worrying in football when you’re not efficient with your goalscoring opportunities,” he said. “I think if we zoom out a little , it’s a correct analysis of it [not finishing chances]. It’s a combination today of good goalkeeping to finishing that is on very thin margins... I’m certain that if we continue to create, we will score goals.”
As the sun set over the Bravida Stadium in Gothenburg, Arsenal took to the field looking to take a significant step in returning to the Champions League Group Stage. Crashing out in Round 1 last season had been a huge disappointment for Jonas Eidevall’s side and they found themselves back in Sweden, the same country where that disheartening defeat to Paris FC had occurred just a year previous.
Eidevall’s side impressed in the competition’s opening round a couple of weeks ago, playing an intense brand of attacking football that wielded six goals to no reply against Rangers before edging though 1-0 against Norway’s Rosenborg. BK Häcken, however, are a team that no side can take for granted.
Juventus will take a two-goal lead into their second leg against Paris Saint-Germain after winning 3-1 in Biella. The hosts struck early, with Danish forward Amalie Vangsgaard breaking free and firing low past Mary Earps into the bottom corner. PSG hit back quickly through Thiniba Samoura, who found the top corner with her strike from the edge of the area in the 12th minute.
Sofia Cantore restored Juve's lead just past the half-hour mark, latching on to a through ball down the left, cutting inside and curling a shot that Earps got a hand to, but could not keep out of the net. The Italian side extended their lead on the hour as Hanna Bennison's first-time strike found the bottom corner, leaving last season's semi-finalists an uphill task to reach the group stages.
Wolfsburg, who were stunned by Paris FC in last year's final qualifying round, were determined to avoid a repeat as they thrashed Fiorentina 7-0. Alexandra Popp scored a hat-trick after Marina Hegering's early double to all but guarantee the German giants will return to the 16-team group stage this season.
In the Champions Path qualifiers, Benfica fought back to edge Hammarby 2-1, Cristina Gutierrez and Andreia Norton on target for the visitors after Julie Blakstad's opener for the Swedish title winners. Two late Evelyne Viens goals earned Italian champions Roma a 3-1 first-leg home win over Servette.
Eidevall described Lind’s outfit as “a brave team” who have shown “they’re good enough to play their brand of football against the top sides”. They certainly impressed in Europe last year, progressing to the quarterfinals where they were knocked out by Paris Saint-Germain and currently sit second in the Damallsvenskan.
There were three changes to the Arsenal side that had lined up at Meadow Park a fortnight ago. Rosa Kafaji made her first start for the Gunners at her former stomping ground. The 21-year-old made the move to London over the summer having spent two campaigns with the Gothenburg-based side. Lotte Wubben-Moy, meanwhile, came into central defence while Beth Mead returned having recovered from an injury she picked up in pre-season.
Arsenal’s inability to break down compact defences and make the most of their dominance of the ball has become a recurring theme in recent years. There was little to show that they had found a solution in a first half that was as lacklustre in attack as it was inefficient.
950 miles away in the centre of Paris, one Vivianne Miedema was making her mark for her new club, opening the scoring for Manchester City on her debut. How her former side were in need of her particular creative skillset as they struggled to fashion a chance of any real note.
There were tame efforts from Alessia Russo and Mariona Caldentey that fell by the wayside against a well-organised outfit who stuck resolutely to their game plan and caused a number of problems through Clarissa Larisey on the transition. It was Kafaji who came closest to a breakthrough, driving a shot off the crossbar from an unmarked position and Arsenal went in at the break with plenty of work to do.
Little changed in the second half despite Eidevall adding attacking impetus to the pitch. Frida Maanum entered the field closely followed by Stina Blackstenius and Caitlin Foord but the visitors continued to struggle with their creativity.
BK Häcken (4-2-3-1): Falk; Wijk, Rybrink, Ostlund, Junttila Nelhage; Fossdalsa, Curmark, Tindell, Anvegard (Nystrom, 89), Bergstrom (Kitagawa, 59), Larisey (Schroder, 66)
Subs: Geurts, Grant, Kitagawa, Nilden, Selerud, Lowing, Nystrom, Schroder
Arsenal (4-1-2-3): Zinsberger; Fox (Wienroither, 70), Wubben-Moy (Williamson, 78), Codina, McCabe; Cooney-Cross, Little, Kafaji (Maanum, 46), Mead (Foord, 70), Russo (Blackstenius, 70), Caldentey
Subs: Van Domselaar, Williams, Williamson, Maanum, Walti, Foord, Kuhl, Blackstenius, Wienroither, Godfrey, Harbert, Reid
As the game wore on, Häcken’s confidence visibly grew as their speed on the counterattack continued to worry the Arsenal backline. There were warning signs of what was about to happen when Larisey beat Laia Codina for pace, only to fire into the side-netting. Ten minutes later, they made Arsenal pay. This time it was American forward Tindell’s turn to break through. She made no mistake in dispatching her finish clinically past Manuela Zinsberger in front of the joyous home fans.
Lind’s side continued to defend resolutely, despite Arsenal hitting the crossbar once more, to ensure they took away a deserved first leg lead. Arsenal face a busy period ahead of the return tie next week with Eidevall talking about the need to move on.
“This game is half-time,” he insisted. “Nothing was going to be decided tonight. We take it back to London in front of our fans and it’s a different game. But now we need to park this match. We need to recover, refresh and look forward to the game [in the league] against Man City.” He and his team will both know that improvement is needed if they are to challenge on multiple fronts this year.
