England captain Leah Williamson believes it is “realistic” for Arsenal Women to aspire to play at the Emirates Stadium every week after they booked a place in the Champions League semi-finals.
The Gunners beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the second leg of their quarter-final tie on Wednesday evening as they fought back from losing 1-0 in Germany last week.
The match was played in front of 21,307 fans - a record for a women’s European game at the Emirates and four times the size of the crowd for Arsenal’s quarter-final defeat by Wolfsburg last year.
Arsenal Women currently play their home games at Boreham Wood’s Meadow Park, which has a capacity of around 3,400, but switch to the Emirates for high-profile fixtures.
The club set a new Women’s Super League (WSL) attendance record in September when their north London derby against Tottenham at the Emirates drew a crowd of 47,367.
Williamson has praised Arsenal for their growing support of the women’s side and believes they can now one day aim to play all their games at the Emirates.
“For sure. I mean, if you asked me five years ago it would have been completely different again,” she said.
“But the fact that, what the club do, the fanbase that we have and how much of a following Arsenal Women have - which we have always had and we have always needed to… this is a historic football club and people know about us and have always known about us.
“We need to just get them in. So it [playing every game at Emirates Stadium] feels realistic.”
Arsenal Women manager Jonas Eidevall shares Williamson’s view and believes wins like the one over Bayern make a huge difference.
“I get the sense of belief that we’re seeing history getting created very quickly in front of our eyes, when I see how the attendances and the culture is here at the Emirates Stadium,” he said.
“Five years ago, if someone would have said that Arsenal’s long-term plan is to move permanently to Emirates Stadium, people would probably have asked: ‘How is that going to happen?’
“But now I think people understand that might be a realistic vision for the future.”
Victory for Arsenal on Wednesday saw them return to the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League for the first time in a decade. They were worthy winners too, with Frida Maanum and Stina Blackstenius both scoring in the space of seven first-half minutes.
Arsenal were dominant during the opening period and the only complaint Eidevall will have had is that his side did not kill the game off.
Maanum’s opener was a brilliant strike from the edge of the box and it was created by three one-touch passes, the last of which was a Cruyff flick from Williamson.
It was comfortably the hardest of the chances Arsenal created and they could easily have been four or five up at the break. Williamson missed a glorious header from six yards out, Blackstenius was twice denied by Bayern goalkeeper Maria Luisa Grohs and Lotte Wubben-Moy hit the crossbar.
Caitlin Foord was the biggest guilty party in the second half, blazing over the bar from 12 yards out when the goal was gaping after a lovely flick from Maanum. Arsenal will face the winner of the tie between Paris Saint-Germain and Wolfsburg in the semi-finals, with the German side 1-0 up going into Thursday’s second leg.
And asked if the Gunners will need to be more ruthless in front of goal, Williamson said: “100 per cent.
“The first leg we should have scored a couple of goals. On Wednesday we should have been 4-1 up going in at half-time. But I think those things come once you graft and you put in consistent performances.
“Hopefully, that’s the next box [that we tick]. Hopefully that’ll arrive just in time.”
