Freddie Cardy at Leigh Sports Village
In a match dominated by the injury to England captain Leah Williamson, Arsenal were also without Kim Little, Katie McCabe and Caitlin Foord as well as the long term absences of Mead and Miedema.
The loss of Williamson to what looked to be a concerning injury in the twelfth minute seemed to affect the game itself, with both sides struggling to find any momentum for a while after what was an action packed first ten minutes.
Jonas Eidevall had no update on Williamson’s injury as he spoke to reporters after the full time whistle. “I don’t have that information. I have other people that are connected to the medical information and the information I get is can she play, can she not play. I’m not a doctor”.
The Arsenal head coach was keen to praise his side’s attitude and fighting spirit. “I thought they deserved more from an attitude perspective. I thought they were brilliant for it, it’s like they do everything I ask them to do in a really really tough game.
“They stuck together, they stayed positive, they tried to find solutions, they tried to express themselves on the ball, they were fighting for each other on the pitch. I told them after, just like I told them after the City game when we turned that around 2-1, maybe I am even prouder of them today in the way that they stick together and the attitude that they showed, so I was trying to praise them as much as possible because that’s how I felt in my heart”.
Looking ahead to Sunday’s Champions League semi final in Wolfsburg, Eidevall reflected on how he planned to lift his side for such an important occasion. “You need to be process oriented. It’s about focusing on the things that we need to perform against Wolfsburg- it’s a very different game, it’s over two legs.
“We will have some other players available for the game as well, both some coming in and some coming out because of squad registration rules. So, we need to use every hour to recover and refresh but also to make good decisions in what the starting eleven is going to be”.
More to come on Leah Williamson's injury when we get it.
