Match report
The YouTube coverage has finished, and so have I. Suzanne Wrack’s match report will drop in the next few minutes. Bye!
In tonight’s other Group C game Barcelona beat Koge 5-0. The Spaniards thus end with a 100% record and goal difference of +23. Arsenal comes second with half as many points (nine) and a goal different inferior by 22.
Final score: Hoffenheim 4-1 Arsenal! Arsenal go through!
90+5 mins: It’s all over! Arsenal are beaten, and for 15 minutes after half-time they completely lost their composure, but they are in the quarter-finals all the same!
90+4 mins: A late corner from Billa leads to a few moments of chaos and the referee’s whistle, but it’s McCabe on the floor, fouled by Steinert, and an Arsenal free kick.
90+3 mins: Viki Schnaderbeck replaces Miedema for the final moments.
90+1 mins: Hoffenheim win a free kick and sent everyone forward, but then they send the ball into a defender and Arsenal break. Little, though, aims for corner flag rather than goal.
90+1 mins: There will be four minutes of stoppage time.
90 mins: Miedema is played through, but Tufekovic refuses to be rounded and when the Dutchwoman plays back to Nobbs, Tufekovic gets up and back in time to save.
89 mins: The shot comes in, but it dips into Williams’ arms.
88 mins: Dongus wins a free kick a few yards outside Arsenal’s penalty area. Hoffenheim are in a hurry, and need a goal fast. And then another one, also fast.
84 mins: Hoffenheim make their final throw of the dice, bringing Judith Steinert and Petra Kocsan on, and taking off Corley and Wienroither.
80 mins: The game has been a bit stodgy in the last few minutes, with Arsenal winning a few free-kicks to slow things down a bit. Hoffenheim need two goals in 10 minutes.
78 mins: Walti is booked for a foul on Dongus.
76 mins: Hoffenheim send the ball in from the left, and Nicole Billa goes for Williams rather than ball. Free kick.
73 mins: Miedema, who from a distance and an angle would have had to make perfect contact to have a chance of scoring, heads over from Parris’s cross.
71 mins: Hoffenheim continue to press well when Arsenal have the ball in their own half. Eventually Little gives it away with a ludicrous blind pass, but the home side can’t capitalise.
68 mins: Corley is brought down on halfway, and Anna Patten is booked.
67 mins: Hoffenheim bring Nicole Billa, Germany’s women’s footballer of the year, on for Linder.
66 mins: Miedema’s low left-footer from the edge of the area goes straight to the keeper. If Arsenal score the next, it would obviously drain the wind from Hoffenheim sails. If the home side do, then the pigeons would be seriously cat-infested.
63 mins: Hoffenheim are now only two goals from knocking Arsenal out and pulling off one of the most remarkable results in all of European football history. It’s still unlikely, but obviously not impossible. Brand lifts a 20-yarder over the bar.
61 mins: Nikita Parris comes on for Beth Mead, who was fabulous in the first half but has done little since, and Jordan Nobbs replaces Mana Iwabuchi.
60 mins: Lydia Williams stays down after the goal, allowing Arsenal’s players to hold a crisis meeting. If Williams has to go off it would really become a crisis, but she’s probably just enabling the crisis meeting.
GOAL! Hoffenheim 4-1 Arsenal (Corley, 60 mins)
An excellent cross from the left finds Corley unmarked to head in from six yards!
59 mins: A cross from the right finds Miedema, who instead of heading goalwards decides to chest the ball down, allowing a defender to get back and get in the way.
GOAL! Hoffenheim 3-1 Arsenal (Hagel, 57 mins)
And another! Arsenal give the ball away in their own half again, and having intercepted the pass Hagel runs unimpeded from the edge of the centre circle to the edge of the area before sidefooting past Williams!
Updated
GOAL! Hoffenheim 2-1 Arsenal (Hagel, 55 mins)
Arsenal have been a bit of a mess since half-time, and Hoffenheim punish them here! It ends with an excellent low pass-cum-cross from Linder on the right, perfectly judged for Hagel to run onto and sidefoot into the top corner!
52 mins: How did that not go in? Jule Brand picks up the ball on the right of Arsenal’s area, cuts past Catley onto her left foot and lifts a shot just wide of the far top corner!
50 mins: Beth Mead takes a wicked corner from the left, but there are absolutely no red shirts at the far post when it dips.
48 mins: A cagey reopening, featuring a few long balls and some passing about among Hoffenheim’s defenders.
46 mins: Arsenal get the second half going.
The players are back out. No sign of any halftimely substitutions for either side.
Half time: Hoffenheim 1-1 Arsenal
45 mins: Peeeeep! The referee plays all of 14 seconds of stoppage time before ending the first half. It’s been intriguing, with some quality play from both sides, and it ends with Hoffenheim still needing at least five unanswered second-half goals.
41 mins: Hoffenheim work a shooting chance for Chantal Hagel, but the offside flag goes up even before she hoofs over the bar.
GOAL! Hoffenheim 1-1 Arsenal (Wienroither own goal, 38 mins)
And once again the team dominating concedes! Mead runs into the area and produces a disappointing shot which equally disappointingly Tufekovic spills. Wienroither and Mana Iwabuchi race to reach the loose ball, arrive more or less at the same time, and between them force it in!
Updated
36 mins: Little has a shot from an unpromising angle on the right, but the keeper saves.
33 mins: The game has changed completely since the goal. Arsenal have now slipped to 55% of possession over the game as a whole, so from a position of complete dominance have been dominated in the last 10 minutes.
29 mins: Hoffenheim try to play through the Arsenal press and fail, but Walti’s shot is terrible and Tufekovic will never make an easier save.
27 mins: Hoffenheim are attacking with a bit more belief now, and Arsenal being a bit more wary. It’s certainly helped the game tha
25 mins: Arsenal have had seven shots to Hoffenheim’s two, and 66% of possession. Football, eh?
GOAL! Hoffenheim 1-0 Arsenal (Brand, 22 mins)
On the break, the home side take the lead! She’s set up by Gia Corley, who wins a key header on halfway and races onto the ball, carries it to the edge of the area and plays in Corley, who sidefoots past Williams!
Updated
20 mins: Beth Mead’s crossing tonight is absolutely on point. She sends the ball zinging across the area, but again nobody’s on hand to turn it in.
17 mins: Inches away! Mead delivers another great cross from the right and Miedema runs onto it at the far post, but she mishits her left-foot half-volley and the ball bounces just wide!
14 mins: The corner leads, eventually, to Fabienne Dongus shooting towards the near post from an acute angle, and Williams making a straightforward save.
14 mins: Now Hoffenheim attack! Jule Brand goes past Patten a bit too easily, runs into the area from the left, cuts to the byline, and then hits Williams with her cross. Hoffenheim have a corner.
12 mins: Lydia Williams in the Arsenal goal hasn’t been a complete spectator: she’s just had to take her second goal kick.
9 mins: This is looking very ominous for Hoffenheim. Mead gets down the right again and delivers a superb cross, but it’s just too far ahead of Miedema.
6 mins: From the corner Little has a shot from the edge of the area that goes straight to the keeper.
5 mins: Another chance! Mead runs with the ball off the right wing and into the penalty area, this time going past Naschenweng with ease to leave herself with only Tufekovic to beat. But the keeper comes out quickly and gets in the way of the shot!
3 mins: An excellent chance for Arsenal! Mead is released down the right, but Naschenweng gets back to hold her up so she turns back and lays off to Iwabuchi, whose cross finds Miedema at the back post. It’s an excellent opportunity to put the two sides’ destiny beyond doubt, but she gets it entirely wrong. Goal kick.
2 mins: Arsenal have provided some clarity on their goalkeeper situation, in the form of this statement: “Manu Zinsberger (illness) hasn’t travelled with the squad to Germany. Hermione Cull was unable to travel due to current restrictions in Germany. Fran Stenson was of course out on loan for the early part of this season and as such wasn’t on our original Uefa list – we weren’t able to have her added to the list as an emergency measure for this game. In the event that we do qualify, we will have that option ahead of the quarter-finals.”
1 min: Peeeeep! Some knee-based confusion at the start, with Hoffenheim kicking off on the sound of the referee’s whistle while Arsenal take the knee. The home side stop, join their visitors, and then get the game started.
You may have noticed that Arsenal have only six substitutes, to Hoffenheim’s eight. There is no keeper on the Gunners’ bench.
The players come out. Arsenal’s seem to be finding something very funny.
There isn’t much by way of live photography floating about, but here’s a view of the Dietmar Hopp Stadion this evening. It’s named after Dietmar Hopp, whose very deep pockets have helped to transform Hoffenheim.
The teams!
The line-ups have been announced, and this is what they look like:
Hoffenheim: Tufekovic; Wienroither, Specht, Feldkamp, Naschenweng; Corley, Dongus, Hagel; Linder, De Caigny, Brand. Subs: Von Schrader, Kocsan, Degen, Billa, Harsch, Fühner, Steinert, Leimenstoll.
Arsenal: Williams; Patten, Beattie, Catley, McCabe; Maanum, Little, Walti, Iwabuchl, Miedema, Mead. Subs: Wubben-Moy, Nobbs, Parris, Foord, Sorensen, Schnaderbeck.
Referee: Maria Marotta (Italy).
🌟 OUR @UWCL STARTING XI 🌟
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) December 15, 2021
Let’s qualify for the quarter-finals! ✊ pic.twitter.com/yAEO1AVTKx
Hello world!
The last games in Group C, and if it’s not quite all to play for there’s at least a bit to play for: sure, Barcelona have sprinted clear to claim first place, but the identity of the team that goes through with them into the knockout rounds remains in doubt. Not a lot of doubt, but some. Arsenal will progress unless they lose and lose big: Hoffenheim need to win by five or more goals to go through. To put that task into context, Arsenal beat Hoffenheim 4-0 at home in October. It was a closer match than the scoreline suggests: possession was shared more or less equally (52-48 in Arsenal’s favour) the German side actually had more shots than Arsenal, even if only three of their 12 was on target, compared with eight out of 11 for Arsenal. But still, their task tonight seems Herculean - though it promises to be quite fun watching them attempt it.
“Either you’re through or you’re not through,” says Jonas Eidevall, the Arsenal manager. “Either you’ve won the league or you’ve not won the league. It’s easy for me. I’m never going to be the person who takes out anything before it actually has happened. We need to bring 110% on that pitch and after we’ve played the game we’ll know if we are through or not. Before that, we know nothing.”
