Arsenal v Fiorentina Women’s Champions League second leg – The Untold Preview
Untold Football
Arsenal v Fiorentina Women’s Champions League second leg – The Untold Preview
This is a quick preview before I set off for Borehamwood to watch the game
For those of you who don’t keep up with our Women’s team, we won the away leg on 12 September by four goals to nil. Here is a link to the match report on the official arsenal website. https://www.arsenal.com/fixture/women/2019-Sep-12/fiorentina-women-0-4-women-match-report.
First half goals by Vivianne Miedema and Kim Little settled any Arsenal nerves and in the second half a second by Miedema followed almost immediately by a fourth from Lisa Evans gave the Italians no opportunity of staging a comeback. All in all it was a thoroughly professional performance and makes us firm favourites to progress to the last 16 of this tournament.
The match is at Meadow Park, Borehamwood this evening with a 19:30 kickoff and will be shown live on the Arsenal website to all of you who have a digital membership. I would, however, strongly suggest that any of you who can get to the ground do so as support in person is so important for the players on the pitch and is really the best way to appreciate the game. The in ground catering is fully recommended and it is a nice place to watch football. The women’s games are also very cheap to watch and you will be able to get tickets on the gate. You will also be able to get player autographs after the game and may well find your self sitting next to player’s families or friends. Talk to the person next to you you never know who it will be.
Our players are in the middle of a heavy run of fixtures, this will be the fifth match in 2weeks and we play again on Sunday so the Manager, Joe Montemurro, will certainly be rotating the squad and some of the players who started on Sunday will certainly drop to the bench.
Last Sunday, Lia Walti and Emma Mitchell made their first starts of the season after recovering from injury and Jordan Nobbs continued her comeback playing the full game. I would expect all three of them to be on the bench tonight. Beth Mead has played every game so far this season and may well be rested with a view to starting against Brighton on Sunday. Louise Quinn withdrew during the warmup with a tight hamstring and again will probably not be risked tonight.
Team
Pauline Peyraud-Magnin also had her first start in goal and did nothing wrong so may well start again tonight.
In defence, Leonie Maier should continue at Right Back with Jeb Beattie and Viktoria Schnaderbeck at Centre Back, Katie McCabe will probably start at Left Back
In Midfield I would expect to see Kim Little return and wear the Captain’s armband, she will likely be paired with Leah Williamson and Jill Roord
In attack I wouldn’t be surprised to see Melissa Filis start (if she is fit after playing on both Saturday and Sunday) alongside Dutch Duo Vivianne Miedema and Danielle Van de Donk
Subs (subject to fitness)
Zinsberger (GK), Quinn (CB), Grant (Attack), Mead (attack), Nobbs (MF), Walti (MF), Mitchell (LB)
The coverage on arsenal.com starts at 19:15, I’ll try and post updates occasionally from the ground.