Four goals from Caitlin Foord, an impressive competitive debut for Mariona Caldentey and progression in Champions League qualifying secured, Arsenal’s 6-0 victory over Rangers opened their 2024-25 campaign confidently.
It was an entirely dominant performance in the end, but Rangers made their hosts work for the lead and for their second goal. Then Arsenal shoved the door open, with Alessia Russo scoring their third, before Foord completed her hat-trick, Kim Little converted from the spot and Foord added a fourth.
The Gunners will play Rosenborg in the second stage of their mini-tournament in qualifying round one on Saturday evening after the Norwegian side pulled off a shock defeat of Atlético Madrid on penalties earlier in the day, with the game level at 2-2 after extra time. Defeat Rosenborg, and Jonas Eidevall’s side will progress to qualifying round two, where they will play one team over two legs with the victor earning a place in the coveted group stage.
There can be no complacency. “That’s always my message,” said Eidevall. “There’s always the next game, there’s always the next action, there always needs to be really high demands on everything we do. I have faults like everyone else, complacency isn’t one of them.”
The England captain, Leah Williamson, had said Arsenal were “left to regret” their Champions League qualifying round one exit last year for the rest of the season. “Everyone knows what it feels like to lose, and nobody wants to feel that again,” she said.
Foord echoed her sentiments after the defeat of Rangers. “It’s still firmly in our minds what happened last season and we don’t want that to happen again,” she said.
The energy Arsenal came out with in the first half demonstrated their desire not to let this opportunity go to waste. Two seasons ago, Arsenal thrived in the group stage and built towards a battling semi-final exit at a sold-out Emirates Stadium. Not making the group stage last year, losing out on a chance to build on that and benefit from the financial and broadcast benefits, was a big blow.
Arsenal were dominant, camped in the Rangers half for much of the first half, rare forays forward by the visitors snuffed out by an organised backline of Emily Fox, Williamson, Laia Codina and Katie McCabe.
An opening goal from the home team was an inevitability but, for all their dominance in possession, they had to wait until the 16th minute. It was the new recruit, the Ballon d’Or-nominated Caldentey who provided the impetus, swinging an accurate cross in from the left that was nodded in by Foord. That was surprisingly the only goal of the half, Arsenal’s 10 attempts and five corners yielding nothing more.
The second goal, which quashed any fears of Rangers spoiling things, finally arrived just before the hour, Little doing well to poke the ball through for Foord to sweep past the goalkeeper Victoria Esson.
Their resolve broken, the Scottish side were dealt another blow one minute later, with Russo collecting the ball on the edge of the box and powering it in. By the 69th minute it was four, with Foord securing her hat-trick in style, firing in McCabe’s cross on the volley.
McCabe was felled in the box by the Rangers captain, Nicola Docherty, with four minutes remaining and Little converted to add the fifth, while Foord fired in late on to add her fourth.
Job done, but Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat of Linköping at the same stage last season was undone by their loss on penalties to Paris FC three days later. The difference? This time Arsenal have had two weeks together to prepare rather than mere days that the post-World Cup period afforded them last season.
“What you can see is a great start,” said Eidevall of relationships developing between the players on the pitch. “I try to reframe this great pre-season that people were on cloud nine speaking about, because we’ve actually only had the team for two weeks. The two central defenders, the backline that was playing today, have played zero minutes in pre-season together, so we are still building relationships.”
