Miedema – The longest minute (Arsenal Women’s Journal)

It was a very even game, at the Emirates Stadium, and Lyon emerged as winners thanks to an own goal scored by Frida Maanum just before half-time. Officiating has been – once again – very poor as the goal should have been disallowed for a clear offside: Malard might have not touched the ball, but she clearly interfered with the play when she attempted to head the ball, which then ricocheted over our midfielder and rolled into the empty net.

Lyon celebrations (Courtesy ofT he Guardian

Lyon started well but we defended just as well, especially through Steph Catley and Leah Williamson, then we proceeded to build our own chances, although we couldn’t really test the goalkeeper. Lotte Wubben-Moy came close with a header from a corner kick, then Vivianne Miedema’s shot from inside the box was blocked by a defender.

Then, suddenly, the tables turned: first Lyon scored out of the blue, then Vivianne Miedema injured her knee and had to be stretched off the pitch, in tears, in what has been the longest minute of the season.

We don’t know yet the extent of our striker’s injury, but I fear it’s another ACL, just like Beth Mead a few weeks ago, which would represent a major blow for our season and the worst news for Vivianne Miedema, who has been very vocal about players’ welfare, recently.

Should the Dutch superstar’s season be over already, it will mean that our two most reliable goal scorers will be out of action until next summer, a gigantic issue for Jonas Eidevall and the club. In Stina Blackstenius, Caitlin Foord, Katie McCabe and Lina Hurtig we have a nice range of attacking players, but it will require a major surge in performances and consistency from them to palliate the impact of Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead absences. It will be interesting to see if the club invests in a new striker next month or if they decide to entrust Stina & Co. to produce the goals required to keep up with our rivals, in England and in Europe. There is also an option to recall Gio Queiroz from her loan spell at Everton, although I don’t know the terms of the original deal with the Merseyside club.

Photo courtesy of BBC

As difficult as it might be, given the circumnstances, we should not oversee the fact that we sealed our qualification to the quarterfinals with one game to go and that we have a solid chance to top the group. We need to win in Zurich to finish first, but a draw could be enough, if Lyon doesn’t win against Juventus. It’s hard to celebrate something knowing that we might have lost our best player for the season but going through this group wasn’t easy and topping it was simply unforeseeable.

This team has gone one level up tactically, technically and mentally since Jonas Eidevall took over, I am confident that they will find the resources to overcome yet another challenge.

We’ll speak again the game against Zurich, next Wednesday, then it will be time to rest as the season enters its winter break. The second half of the season will start with a mouthwatering home fixture against Chelsea, on January 15^th.

Chin up, Gunners!

Andrea Rosati

Italian living in Switzerland, Gooner since mid-nineties, when the Gunners defeated my hometown team, in Copenhagen. I started my own blog and podcast (www.clockenditalia.com) after after some experiences with Italian websites and football magazines. Covering Arsenal Women with the occasional rant about the boys.