ARSENAL PROGRESSED TO the quarter-finals of the Women’s Champions League despite a 1-0 defeat to Lyon at the Emirates Stadium, where Dutch forward Vivianne Miedema suffered what looked a serious injury.
Holders Lyon – beaten 5-1 at home by Arsenal in their opening European tie in October – scored the only goal of the game just before half time when Frida Maanum put through her own net.
The Gunners, though, have progressed from Group C ahead of the final round of matches as they have a better head-to-head record than second-placed Lyon, who are two points ahead of Juventus, their next opponents.
Despite the eventual positive outcome from the evening, Miedema’s injury will be the chief concern for Gunners boss Jonas Eidevall, who is already missing England striker Beth Mead with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
The Netherlands international – who had recently returned to action after being granted some time off to recharge – went down under no contact shortly after the Lyon goal and was in tears as she was carried off on a stretcher.
Lyon had started brightly, with Delphine Cascarino looking to stretch the home backline.
Arsenal went close from a corner in the 24th minute when Lotte Wubben-Moy headed over.
The Gunners pressed again towards the end of the first half as Katie McCabe’s cross towards the back post was just too far in front of Caitlin Foord.
Lyon took the lead in first-half stoppage time when a deep free-kick into the Arsenal penalty area was nodded across the six-yard box by Cascarino and Maanum diverted the ball into the net for an own goal.
Things got worse for Arsenal before the break when Miedema went down with what looked like it could be a serious knee injury after landing awkwardly as she challenged for a loose ball.
Viv 🥹🙏🏿
— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) December 15, 2022
Brazilian defender Rafaelle Souza came on to replace Miedema for the second half, with England captain Leah Williamson pushing up into a midfield role.
Arsenal made a positive start as McCabe got into the right side of the penalty area and fired in a low, angled drive which Lyon goalkeeper Christiane Endler held at her near post.
At the other end, Lyon substitute Eugenie Le Sommer fired a cutback from Cascarino straight at Arsenal number one Manuela Zinsberger.
The Gunners continued to press for an equaliser but were unable to open up a determined Lyon defensive line. Ireland captain McCabe saw yellow for the Gunners just before she was subbed off late on.
In the final minute, Lina Hurtig saw her shot cleared off the line following a corner, with Lyon keeper Endler then making an important save down at her near post from Stina Blackstenius’ follow-up effort.
Elsewhere tonight, Barcelona and Bayern Munich both cruised to comfortable wins to book their tickets for the qualifying stage.
Bayern Munich overcame some stubborn early resistance at Swedish side Rosengard to ease to a comprehensive 4-0 win, while Barca were 6-2 winners over Benfica in Lisbon.
And Juve hammered Zurich 5-0 in Turin, with Italy star Cristiana Girelli scoring four.
- Additional reporting from – © AFP 2022
Ok I’ll be the first to say it. Just move the home games to Wembley. That way most of the home fans have less distance to travel anyway.
@Darren McGuire: I doubt you are the first to say something like that
@Darren McGuire: funny cos it’s true
@Alana: funny cause its not…
@Teddyzigzagbigbag: they should move their home games to the Aviva
It’s a good move. United are the best supported club in England. Their average attendance is over 74k which is pretty much capacity. Spurs are second which is to be expected when they are in wembley and then suprisingly comes Arsenal and west ham. Liverpool are below city with an average of 53k per match which is over 20k per game shy of United. That 20k difference is the same as Swansea or watfords average attendance for this season.
@Jim Demps: man knows his attendances!!
@Jim Demps: what’s surprising about Arsenal and West Ham coming 3rd and 4th, they have the 3rd and 4th largest stadiums. Man City and Liverpool don’t have the capacity to be higher on the list.
@John Buckley: Jim is just quoted the largest stadiums in order and appears to be suprised that they also have the highest attendances
@Jim Demps: god you are smart
@Gareth Keenan: maybe you should read both comments again. He is going by attendance order only, Wembley is bigger than Old Trafford. I asked what was surprising because it is no surprise to most people. Your comment added absolutely nothing to this thread.
@John Buckley: I guess the surprise on my part was that of West Ham being so far up the list. I know they have a large stadium and a good fan base but I didn’t think they were getting that high of an average attendance. If I’d have had to guess before I looked it up I would have put them down around 6-7th with Liverpool.
Looks like all the commenters on this thread are either football stadia enthusiasts or dusted off the old encyclopedias… Haha, great stuff lads.
88000 wouldn’t be the biggest in Europe.
@Slim Jim: I imagine the story is misconstruing the point. An 88k capacity would almost certainly see United have the highest average attendance in Europe (Dortmund’s is 79k and Barcelona 77k).
Wouldn’t be the first time united have used city’s ground as home. City allowed united to use Maine road after WW2. Ethiad is much more of a city centre stadium being only 20 mins from Piccadilly. Also, city don’t actually own the ethiad, they just pay an annual rent to Manchester City council (similar to shamrock rovers) so I could see this happening.
@Dublin Gooner: city own there own stadium they bought it years ago and Old Trafford is as close to Piccadilly as city’s ground is
@Colm Connolly: city do not own the stadium. They have a 99 year lease or some such deal from manchester city council.
Another way to extract cash for their tourist fans by extending
the library, well its as quiet as a library on match days anyway….
@Forfar So Good: Oh so when you called it a library, you didn’t mean it was an actual library, where you can go to acquire books on a temporary basis for free. That’s where my confusion came from. You were in fact talking about the fact that traditionally libraries are quiet, and were humourously comparing the stadium to that, by inferring that it is also quiet. I get it.
@Jack Jones: the away fans are normally the quietest in OT
@Forfar So Good: How droll. Show me any stadium in England which has outstanding atmosphere in every game. Before Anfield is mentioned, like any other team that only happens on the biggest occasions. English stadiums are simply not as loud now. The average attendees are older now.
They don’t think much of themselves do they
A new manager should be priority, before United slip away into an abyss of mediocrity.
@Daniel Donovan: The abyss of being ahead of every team in England bar Man City.
It would just be a bigger library
As United fan I’d think we would have more things pressing issues to be concerned about. I mean which is more important right now; getting back to being a strong team or saying we used to win things, but look at the size of the stadium?
@Andrew Keane: it’s not going to happen for another 2 to 3 years and word is over here they would use boltons stadium.
@Andrew Keane: Proper planning means looking beyond 2-3 years. Besides United are clearly improved in the league this season and are clearly going to be among the challengers next season.
@Gary Dunne: LOL! Next year is our year. Where did i hear that before?
@Paul Friday Shannon: what’s the capacity of Bolton’s stadium. If you’re talking 30,000 or less you may as well say Oldham or Bury which are probably considered part of Greater Manchester now.