Match report: Benfica 0-2 Arsenal
Full time: Benfica 0-2 Arsenal
Arsenal’s Champions League defence is up and running after a hard-fought victory in Lisbon. It was rarely pretty and never easy against a very solid Benfica defence, but second-half goals from Beth Mead* and Alessia Russo gave them an ultimately deserved victory.
* It may go down as a Diana Gomes own goal but it looked like Mead got the last touch.
90+5 min Benfica know their race is run, but they’ve made Arsenal work extremely hard for this victory.
90+1 min: Chance for Benfica There will be eight minutes of added time. Benfica almost get one back from a corner: Ucheiebe’s header isn’t held by Van Domselaar, but she recovers to make a very brave save at the feet of Diana Gomes.
Chloe Kelly stood over a free-kick on the left wing, 25 yards from goal, with everybody expecting a lofted cross to the far post. Instead Kelly threaded a low pass around the wall and into the corridor of uncertainty between defenders and goalkeeper. Russo, who knew what was coming, was first to react and sidefooted the ball past Pauels on the run. That’s such a good goal.
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GOAL! Benfica 0-2 Arsenal (Russo 89)
Alessia Russo seals victory after a brilliantly worked free-kick!
87 min Caldentey pulls back Davidson to stop a Benfica break and is booked.
85 min: Double substitution for Arsenal Katie McCabe and Laia Codina replace Emily Fox and Steph Catley. Arsenal are down to the bare bones in defence.
84 min Now Steph Catley has gone down and needs treatment. Meanwhile Fox is being walked round the outside of the field; she looks in a fair bit of distress.
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83 min A long-range shot from the substitute Leticia Almeida is waved over the bar by Van Domselaar.
82 min Emily Fox needs some treatment and looks in a fair bit of pain. She’s walking very slowly from the field and will presumably need to be replaced.
80 min: Triple substitution for Benfica Lara Martins, Carissa Boeckmann and Leticia Almeida replace Diana Silva, Beatriz Cameirao and Caroline Moller.
77 min A better spell for Benfica. Martin-Prieto plays an excellent reverse pass into the area towards Gasper, whose cross is chested away at the near post by Catley.
75 min It may not have been the most coruscating performance from Arsenal but I do think their patience in the first half is being rewarded now. The Benfica defence looks shattered.
73 min A long cross from the left is fractionally behind Wubben-Moy, whose header flies off target as a result. Very tough chance.
72 min I did Beth Mead a disservice – she actually scored that goal, not Diana Gomes.
71 min: Benfica substitution Cristina Martin-Prieto replaces Marit Bratberg Lund.
70 min: Arsenal substitution Caitlin Foord comes on for Olivia Smith.
69 min Benfica have carried less threat on the counter-attack in the second half, which along with the goal has enabled Arsenal to take a firm grip on this game.
67 min Kelly spots Pauels off her line and tries to score from about 50 yards. It’s a nice effort but Pauels has time to get back and make the save; I think it was drifting wide anyway.
66 min Lucia Alves fouls Smith, who responds by pushing Alves over. Both players are booked.
62 min Russo is pulled back by Cameirao, who receives the first yellow card of the night. It was a booking but I’m not sure it was much different to the foul by Mead in the 52nd minute.
61 min: Benfica substitution The 16-year-old Carolina Tristao is replaced by Chandra Davidson.
60 min: Arsenal substitutions Chloe Kelly and Stina Blacksteinus replace Beth Mead and Kyra Cooney-Cross.
Caldentey, on the right side of the area, screwed a low cross on the turn towards Mead at the near post. The ball was cut out by a defender but Mead kept scrapping and pressured Diana Gomes, who poked the ball nervously past Lena Pauels and into her own net.
Edit: it looks like it was actually Mead’s goal, a reward for some admirable persistence.
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GOAL! Benfica 0-1 Arsenal (Diana Gomes og 57)
Arsenal take the lead through an own goal from Diana Gomes!
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56 min Mead evades Amado with a neat bodyswerve on the left… but then she can’t keep the ball in play.
52 min Alves is frustrated again when Mead escapes a yellow card for a cynical foul that thwarts a Benfica break. She definitely had a case that time.
51 min There’s no VAR intervention so presumably Smith didn’t land a full-blown elbow on Alves.
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50 min Lucia Alves stays down holding her face after a challenge with Smith. We’ve only seen one replay, and the angle wasn’t great, but Alves is motioning to the referee that she was elbowed.
47 min A cross from the right almost falls for Mead, who is well tackled by Diana Silva (I think). Little then shoots high and wide from distance.
46 min Peep peep! The second half is under way; no changes on either side yet.
Half-time reading
Half time: Benfica 0-0 Arsenal
Stalemate in Lisbon. Arsenal have been kept at bay by an extremely hard-working Benfica, who have defended as if a clean sheet depends on it. Whether they can maintain that defensive intensity for another half remains to be seen.
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45 min Two minutes of added time. Smith waves her arms around, a symbol of Arsenal’s growing frustration. They’ve had most of the ball – around 70 per cent – but Benfica have come closest to scoring.
41 min: Fine save by Van Domselaar!
Gasper’s deep free-kick from the left is met by Diana Gomes, who powers a beautifully timed header towards goal from 12 yards. Van Domselaar flies to her left to push it round the post. That’s an excellent save.
38 min Moller knocks the ball off Wubben-Moy and behind for a… goalkick to Arsenal. Benfica are understandably frustrated because it should have been a corner.
36 min This time Mead does manage to cut inside Amado to create a shooting chance, but Ucheibe flies across to make her second important block of the half.
32 min I thought the game was opening up; I’m not sure it is. Arsenal need to be patient: Benfica are working so hard defensively and will struggle to keep it up for 100 minutes.
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30 min The resulting corner is swung beyond the far post by Cooney-Cross. It’s met by Wubben-Moy, whose downward header goes a few yards wide. Not a bad chance.
29 min Mead is found in a bit of space on the left side of the area. She shapes to shoot, then tries to come back inside on her right foot; Amado reads it and makes an important tackle.
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25 min Smith nicks the ball off a Benfica defender’s toes, moves to the edge of the area and sweeps a shot that is well blocked by the lunging Ucheibe. Feels like the game is slowly starting to open up.
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23 min Diana Silva beats the Arsenal offside trap, running onto a long crossfield pass from left to right, and curls a shot from a tight angle that is comfortably held at the near post by Van Domselaar.
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21 min A deflected cross from Caldentey is spilled badly by Pauels, who is relieved to dive on the loose ball in front of Mead.
18 min Mead curls a free-kick onto the roof of the net from 25 yards. A good effort, though the keeper Lena Pauels had it covered.
15 min There’s kind of nothing to report. It’s not a bad game at all; there just hasn’t been any incident.
11 min The match has become more evenly matched – and a little scruffier – after a very confident start from Arsenal. Still no shots on target at either end.
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8 min And nothing comes of that either. Benfica are at least enjoying their first extended spell in the Arsenal half.
6 min Nothing comes of the Arsenal corner – and then Smith concedes one at the other end with an overhit pass back to Van Domselaar.
4 min No chances to speak of but Arsenal have started really well. Smith’s cross is turned behind for the first corner of the game…
1 min Peep peep! We’re under way in Lisbon and Arsenal are already zipping the ball around with confidence.
“Some things to like in the Arsenal lineup, but also some things to fret over,” says Charles Antaki, inadvertently capturing the defailt emotional setting of the association football fan. “Good to see Taylor Hinds on from the start; she’s less, er, combative than Katie McCabe but seems to have more zip about her at the moment. Kyra Cooney-Cross in midfield will please a lot of fans who want a bit more oomph in that department. Delighted to see Lotte Wubben-Moy back in, of course; but it only underscores the fact that Leah Williamson is still very much out and very much missed. And at the back of it all there is the crisis–murmur. So a thoroughly convincing win, please.”
Full time: Atletico Madrid 0-1 Man Utd
As the players line up for the anthems in Lisbon, a quick note on a very hard-fought victory for Manchester United in Madrid. Yara El-Shaboury has more.
Renee Slegers’ pre-match thoughts
[On returning to Lisbon] They’re great memories – we’re staying at the same hotel – but we start from scratch and we’re very focussed on the here and now.
[On her team selection] We’ve played a lot of games in this block. There are always a lot of things that go into the decisions but the the main one is the quality we have in the squad.
Every game is a must-win for us, that’s how we see it. We have big belief in who we are and what we do. We’re looking forward to tonight.
Informative, passionate, entertaining. But enough about me and my prose, that’s also the tagline for Moving the Goalposts, our weekly women’s football newsletter. Here’s the latest edition.
Manchester United, who have been down to 10 players since before half-time, lead 1-0 against Atletico in Madrid. You can follow the last quarter of that game with Yara El-Shaboury.
Team news
Four changes for Arsenal from Sunday’s 1-0 win over Brighton. Lotte Wubben-Moy, Taylor Hinds, Kyra Cooney-Cross and Beth Mead come in for Katie Reid, who is injured, Katie McCabe, Frida Maanum and Caitlin Foord.
Benfica’s team includes Carolina Tristao, making her full debut at the age of S-I-X-T-E-E-N.
Benfica (possible 4-3-3) Pauels; Amado, Gomes, Ucheibe, Lund; Tristao, Cameirao, Gasper; Alves, Diana Silva, Moller.
Subs: Rute Costa, Prat, Joana Silva, Martin-Prieto, Almeida, Carole Costa, Engesvik, Martins, Pauleta, Davidson, Boeckmann, Guedes.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1) Van Domselaar; Fox, Wubben-Moy, Catley, Hinds; Little, Cooney-Cross; Smith, Caldentey, Mead; Russo.
Subs: Codina, McCabe, Maanum, Kelly, Foord, Pelova, Nighswonger, Blackstenius, Harwood, Liddiard.
Referee Miriama Bockova (Slovakia).
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of Benfica v Arsenal in the WCL. Arsenal’s Champions League defence got off to a false start last week with a 2-1 defeat at home to Lyon; and while it’s too early to talk of must-win games, they’ll be keen to get up and running tonight in Lisbon’s Estadio Jose Alvalade – the ground on which they beat Barcelona in last season’s final.
It won’t be straightforward against a Benfica side who have won five Portuguese titles in a row. They also started this season’s competition with a 2-1 defeat, in their case away to Juventus. But unlike Arsenal, Benfica don’t have much pedigree in this tournament – at least not yet. Their best run, two seasons ago, ended with a 6-2 aggregate defeat to Lyon in the quarter-finals.
Benfica, and Portuguese football more generally, will want to make a dent in the competition as soon as spossible. Victory over the reigning champions would be a nice place to start.
Kick off 8pm
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