Beth Mead’s early strike was enough to secure Arsenal a play-off spot at the very least in the Women’s Champions League and a 1-0 win over FC Twente at Meadow Park.
A win in their final league-phase fixture next week against OH Leuven could be enough to secure an automatic route into the knockout stages, but for now Renee Slegers’ side move up to sixth, providing a lifeline.
When Mead dropped her shoulder in the box to fire home the opener with 10 minutes on the clock, there was a feeling among those in attendance that Arsenal were chasing a significant margin.
Moments prior to Mead’s deflected finish, she had been denied by Anna Knol who headed clear her earlier strike off the line as the Gunners began their domination.
The reigning champions limited the away side to a single shot on target, a tame Jaimy Ravensbergen header in the second half and just two shots in total. Arsenal themselves created a host of opportunities with 15 efforts in total, five of which were on target.
Alessia Russo, who came into the game on a run of 11 goals in 10 Champions League games, failed to find the net but came close to doubling Arsenal’s advantage late on when her header rattled the bar.
A narrow lead meant that England skipper, Leah Williamson, who returned to the bench having been out of action since the Euros final in June, wasn’t risked by boss Renee Slegers.
Arsenal return to domestic duty as they have the opportunity to go second in the Women’s Super League on Saturday, live on Sky Sports, when they host Everton.
Mead: We weren’t ruthless enough in front of goal
Beth Mead opened the scoring in the 10th minute
Arsenal forward Beth Mead speaking to Disney+:
“It was a nice game to play in. I enjoyed my football and moments in the game.
“I thought we dominated the game. We could have maybe took a few more risks in the final third. We had very good chances today and didn’t put some of them in the back of the net which is very frustrating.
“They [Twente] are a hard-working side. They came out really well, which we knew they would, settled down and had some good patterns of play. It’s just the ruthlessness in front of goal we were lacking a bit today.”
On her winning goal: “We obviously want to score more goals. We had chances to do that. We weren’t ruthless enough in front of goal today. When you have chances, you have to score. I had my chance and got my goal. Happy it went in this time.”
On top four chances: “That’s the aim. We’ve got to put three points on the table next week. We had an up-and-down campaign last time, you can turn these things around. We just want to finish the Champions League year with a win and put ourselves in a very good position moving forward.
Slegers: It was hard but we know we can compete
Arsenal boss Renee Slegers:
“I think we dominated. When you look at it we’ve been really close in a lot of games. We’ve let ourselves down in a few moments, Bayern Munich first half was really good, second half we let ourselves down. We know we can compete, it’s just putting it together and getting those results over the line.
“We got a goal in the first half. I think we did some quite good things in the first half, in the way we set up and the movements we created, and the spaces we created in the box. We said after Liverpool that we want to keep our foot on the gas and want to go for a second.
“It was hard today. I think the rhythm in the second half was broken down a little bit with everything that they tried to do to manage the game. It broke down at times for us. I think there was quite a lot of set-pieces and referee decisions, so we never really got into that nice flow and rhythm to stack attacks. But we did stack set-pieces.
“We were chasing that second one but for as long as it’s 1-0, you know that your opponent always can get one chance. But I think in the end we managed that well. I’m really happy for the team and for Anneke to have the clean sheet today.
“I’m very pleased and I think we adjusted well. They, of course, started to stack numbers and went more direct from goal-kicks in those last couple of minutes. I think the team did well on working on those first and second balls in those moments. We killed some time in the end, the last couple of minutes. We managed the game at the end, we managed the game well.”
