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- Arsenal’s growing injury concerns, increasing fees, and a problem on the horizon
by Andrew Crawshaw
On July 20th we started off with 15 of our players involved in the world cup. The group stages finished yesterday morning (August 3) UK time and we now have 16 remaining countries in the competition. How were my predictions and who is still left representing Arsenal.
My predictions as to which sides would go through are shown in bold below:
- Group A – New Zealand, Norway, Philippines and Switzerland
- Group B – Australia, Republic of Ireland, Nigeria and Canada
- Group C – Spain, Costa Rica, Zambia and Japan
- Group D – England, Haiti, Denmark and China (for a video of the England-China game highlights click here)
- Group E – USA, Vietnam, Netherlands and Portugal
- Group F – France, Jamaica, Brazil and Panama
- Group G – Sweden, South Africa, Italy and Argentina
- Group H – Germany, Morocco, Colombia and South Korea
The qualifiers from the groups were
- Group A – Switzerland won the group from Norway – so I got that one correct
- Group B – Australia won from Nigeria – so one out of two (I thought Canada would qualify)
- Group C – Japan won from Spain – so again two out of two for me
- Group D – England won from Denmark – one out of two for me (I thought China)
- Group E – Netherlands won from USA – another two for me
- Group F – France won from Jamaica – one out of two for me and a big surprise for the world with Brazil failing to qualify
- Group G – Sweden won from South Africa – another one from two for me South Africa instead of Italy
- Group H – Colombia won the group from Morocco – another major shock for the world with Germany failing to qualify for only the first time in their history.
So the last 16 looks like this:-
Saturday 5 August
- Match 1 – Switzerland v Spain 06:00
- Match 2 – Japan v Norway 09:00
Sunday 06 August
- Match 3 – Netherlands v South Africa 03:00
- Match 4 – Sweden v USA 10:00
Monday 07 August
- Match 5 – England v Nigeria 08:30
- Match 6 – Australia v Denmark
Tuesday 08 August
- Match 7 – Colombia v Jamaica 09:00
- Match 8 – France v Morocco 12:00
NB All of these matches will be shown live on both BBC and ITV channels in the UK
The quarter finals will be played on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 August
Friday
- QF 1 – Winners of matches 1 and 3 (02:00)
- QF 2 – Winners of matches 2 and 4 (08:30)
Saturday
- QF 3 – Winner of matches 5 and 7 (08:00)
- QF 4 – Winners of matches 6 and 8 (11:30)
So which Arsenal players are still involved and who is now on holiday? In the order they play we have:-
- Switzerland – Lia Walti and Noelle Maritz
- Norway – Frida Maanum
- Netherlands – Victoria Pelova
- Sweden – Lina Hurtig, Amanda Ilestedt and Stina Blackstenius
- England – Alessia Russo and Lotte Wubben-Moy
- Australia – Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord
So 11 of our original 15 remaining in the competition, the four now on holiday are Canada’s Sabrina D’Angelo and Cloe Lacasse, Katie McCabe from Ireland and Kathine Kuhl from Denmark.
Good luck to all our players in their next games and may they all remain uninjured.
Predictions
- Switzerland v Spain is really too close to call, will probably be decided on penalties
- Japan to beat Norway by more than one goal
- Netherlands to beat South Africa by more than one goal
- Sweden to beat the USA in a tight game
- England should beat Nigeria but it will be close unless England get off to another fast start
- Australia should beat Denmark relatively comfortably
- Colombia v Jamaica is another one very difficult to call. Both teams have exceeded most people’s expectations by getting this far. Probably Colombia in a close game
- France v Morocco France will be massive favourites for this game but really haven’t been playing very well so far whilst Morocco are another team who will be overjoyed to still be in the tournament
2023/24
A reminder that Arsenal Women’s season starts on Wednesday September 6 with a Champions League qualifying match in Sweden against Linköping.
The winner will play the winner of Paris FC v Ukranian side FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih on Saturday 9 September to progress to a home and away Round 2 match in October.
Our domestic WSL campaign starts with Liverpool on Sunday 01 October at the Emirates – kickoff 14:00. Other matches at the Emirates are…
- October 15 against Aston Villa (14:00), (ticket information here)
- December 10 against Chelsea (14:00),
- February 18 against Manchester United (14:00)
- March 3 against Tottenham again with a 14:00 kickoff.
All other league games will be at Borehamwood and all are sold out so if you want to see the Ladies in the league you will need to go to one of the five Emirates matches.
