It had looked far from certain after the first leg but Arsenal ensured there will be three Women’s Super League teams in the Champions League group stage for the first time with a comfortable victory over Häcken.
With Chelsea having secured a place as WSL champions and Manchester City 5-0 up on Paris FC from their away leg of their second round tie (an advantage converted into an 8-0 aggregate success on Thursday night), the pressure was on Arsenal to deliver, Jonas Eidevall’s side needing to overturn a 1-0 deficit.
Eidevall had said Arsenal needed to be in the group stage, adding that it would be a failure if they did not qualify. Arsenal do need the group stage if they are to continue their progress on and off the pitch, with the club committed to playing all such games at the Emirates Stadium, but the head coach needed it too. Had his team failed to qualify, it would have been inevitable that his future would have been questioned.
These are the fine margins coaches are forced to operate within. But instead of talk of heads rolling, there were four goals, happy fans and now packed-out Champions League nights under the lights to look forward to. Arsenal go into Friday’s draw at noon.
“It was really important given we’ve built the squad to get into this position, to get into the group stage and compete in the league,” Eidevall said.
“It’s tough to be in the league path [in qualification], it’s a tough start to the season, it’s knockout football, it’s small margins, this was a tough opponent but also tough placement playing Manchester City at the Emirates in between.”
The manager made three changes to the team that earned a point in the 2-2 draw at the Emirates with Manchester City on Sunday, with Lia Wälti, Alessia Russo and Beth Mead returning to the starting XI in place of Frida Maanum, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross.
Arsenal had been profligate against City and were left ruing missed chances and two dropped points having taken an early lead. There could be no room for the same wastefulness at Meadow Park for the visit of Häcken. The Swedish side had already punished Arsenal for making that mistake against a resilient low block in Gothenburg.
Mak Lind made one change to the side that secured a huge 1-0 home win in the first leg, with Hikaru Kitagawa replacing the forward Alice Bergström.
Eidevall had called the trip to Gothenburg a “step backwards”. At Meadow Park Häcken were keen to turn that step into a slide, attacking early on with the intensity that they had finished the opening leg with.
The visitors were having a lot of joy down Arsenal’s left side, with Katie McCabe’s advanced position leaving space in behind, but it was Arsenal who got the goal that levelled the tie rather than Häcken extending their advantage, with Wälti’s first-time strike from distance in the 23rd minute coming down off the bar and off the back of goalkeeper Jennifer Falk and in.
The goal seemed to relax the shoulders of the players in red, who laboured hard in the relentless rain, and the momentum started to swing their way more definitively.
The goal that put them in front was messy but hard earned. Mead’s effort was blocked, Häcken cleared but only as far as Mariona Caldentey, who arrived from the left and her strike was clipped up and over Falk by the foot of Emma Östlund.
Häcken instantly tested Arsenal after the break after Caldentey gifted the ball to Tabitha Tindell, who cut past Lotte Wubben-Moy but her shot did not trouble Manuela Zinsberger.
Celtic became the first Scottish side to reach the group stages of the Women's Champions League with a 2-0 win over Ukrainian side Vorskla Poltova sealing a 3-0 aggregate win. After a poor first half, Emma Lawton headed in her first Celtic goal from Lucy Ashworth-Clifford's cross in the 52nd minute before Shannon McGregor headed in a second 10 minutes later.
Juventus scored in the second minute to add to their two-goal cushion from the first leg, and although Paris Saint-Germain equalised from the penalty spot early in the second half, Barabara Bonansea headed past Mary Earps to secure progression for the Italian side.
Elsewhere, Roma thumped Switzerland's Servette 7-2 away to complete a 10-3 aggregate win.
The goal that gave Arsenal breathing room came moments later. McCabe’s cross was headed back to her by Emily Fox and the Republic of Ireland captain put it into the middle for Mead, who flicked the ball over a defender and sent a vicious strike in as she spun.
With the tie stretching beyond them, Häcken had to go for it, leaving room for Arsenal to manoeuvre in the final third.
Arsenal’s fourth goal arrived after the changes, as the substitutes Foord and Maanum combined, with the former sending in the cross that the Norwegian turned in. In the end it was a routine victory, but Arsenal need to do better at lifting the pressure off themselves far sooner. “The season starts now here, we can’t relax,” said Eidevall. “We’re in all four competitions we want to be in – now we have to make the most of it.”
