by Andrew Crawshaw
Thursday and Friday night this week see the penultimate round of group games in the Champions League.
Here is a reminder of the state of play in the four groups
Group A
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | Chelsea | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 11 | 10 |
| 2 | PSG | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 7 |
| 3 | Real Madrid | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| 4 | Villanzia Shkoder | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 19 | -19 | 0 |
Group B
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | Vfl Wolfsburg | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 10 |
| 2 | Roma | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 7 |
| 3 | SKN St Pölten | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 4 |
| 4 | SK Slavia Prague | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | -4 | 1 |
Group C
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | Arsenal | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
| 2 | Olympique Lyonnais | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 7 |
| 3 | Juventus | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 4 | FC Zürich Frauen | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 12 | -11 | 0 |
Group D
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | FC Barcelona | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 4 | 13 | 9 |
| 2 | FC Bayern Munich | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 9 |
| 3 | SL Benfica | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 13 | -7 | 6 |
| 4 | FC Rosengård | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 10 | -7 | 0 |
Groups C and D play on Thursday, A and B on Friday
A reminder that the top two teams in each group progress to the Knockout phase with the quarter-finals matching the top in each group against one of the second-place teams.
Our game against Lyon is at the Emirates kicking off at 20:00, I’m going with my 18 year old granddaughter which should be fun.
The reverse fixture produced one of the most remarkable results of recent years with Arsenal running out 5 – 1 winners. Lyon are the current European Champions, a competition they have won a record 8 times and our score equalled their heaviest-ever home defeat.
Tomorrow’s game will be very unlikely to produce a similar score. Lyon were badly affected by injuries at the time, a situation we have become used to ourselves in recent games, and were essentially playing with a makeshift defence and they left us far too much space to run into at the back Space which we gratefully accepted and used to devastating effect.
In terms of personnel, I am not aware of any significant change since last week so It will very much be a similar team. Kim Little was shown in the training photos so I have added her to the Subs bench but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she stays in the warm.
Starting 11
Manuella Zinsberger (GK)
Laura Wienroither, Leah Williamson, Rafaelle Souza, Steph Catley
Lia Wälti, Vivianne Miedema, Frida Maanum
Katie McCabe, Stina Blackstenius, Caitlin Food
Subs
Kaylan Marckese (GK), Lotte Wubben-Moy, Jen Beattie, Teyah Goldie, Noelle Maritz, Kim Little, Jordan Nobbs, Mana Iwabuchi, Michelle Agyemang
A draw will see us qualify as group winners, even a loss probably wouldn’t be catastrophic as we are odds-on favourites to win our final game next Wednesday evening away in Zurich thereby giving us 13 points. In theory, Lyon could pip us to the group title if they win by a better score than 5 – 1 but that would be so bad a result for us that I don’t even want to contemplate it.
If you can’t get to the Emirates then the game will be shown live on the DAZN Youtube channel free and worldwide.
COYWG
- Aston Villa v Arsenal: WSL. The match preview – part 1
- Aston Villa v Arsenal part 2. The team, other fixtures and all of Miedema’s goals
Half time and Lyon are one nil up thanks to an own goal by Maanum following a messy free kick. Worse was to follow with Muedema being carried off on a stretcher in tome added on at the end of the half.
No idea of the extent of the injury, just have to hope it’s not season ending.
Not the best half of football I’ve seen this year, we must be more proactive in the second half. It looked as though we were playing for a draw which I never like to see.
Fairly even game with nothing much happening until the last couple of minutes when Lyon scored an offside goal. It actually goes down as an own goal as it went in off a defender.
The Lyon player went for the ball but missed it wrong footing the defender causing the own goal. The Lyon player was 2yards offside for pity’s sake.
Worse was to follow as Miedema has been stretchered off with what looks like a nasty injury. Poss Knee. Poss ACL, but I am guessing. Fingers crossed it’s not that serious.
No further score in the second half so we need a win next week in Zurich.
Honestly the way we were tonight that may not be the certainty it should be. At no time did we look like scoring.
Andrew
Odd you haven’t even mentioned that their goal was 2 yards offside. I mean it must of been bad, even the lop sided commentators couldn’t believe it was allowed to stand.
Agreed that we weren’t at our best but even so I thought we deserved a draw, especially given the nature of their goal.
That makes 2 terrible off side decisions in 2 games that have cost us dear, and ultimately could cost us a league title and progression in the CL.
Chelseas first goal the weekend was not even close and ultimately earned them 2 points, 2 points that have potentially cost us top spot in the League. And last nights, that again wasn’t even close that could cost us the CL.
Just because we didn’t play great doesn’t excuse 2 terrible calls.
Test