Arsenal Women 3 - 0 Real Madrid Women

An Arsenal onslaught with three goals in 13 second-half minutes saw the Gunners overturn Real Madrid’s 2-0 first-leg lead to set up a Champions League semi-final with Lyon following their 3-2 aggregate victory.

The Gunners blew their visitors away from the first whistle following the interval. Even with Real kicking off, it took only 44 seconds before Chloe Kelly’s cross was turned home from close range by Alessia Russo to spark the comeback into life.

Real had proved a tough nut to crack for wasteful Arsenal before half-time but collapsed following Russo’s opener.

What remained of their lead was snatched away three minutes later when Mariona Caldentey’s header, from another Kelly cross, slipped through the hands of goalkeeper Misa to level the tie.

Fittingly, Russo saved the best goal, which proved to be the winner, for just 10 minutes later, lashing Steph Catley’s knock-down into the roof of the net from a free-kick, with the forward in disbelief at the speed of the Gunners’ fightback.

Russo twice thought she had sealed Arsenal’s place in the final four – and the match ball for herself – in the closing stages but saw both goals ruled out for narrow offsides.

The hosts survived a rare Real Madrid scare late on when Linda Caicedo shot straight at Daphne van Domselaar, but were otherwise rarely troubled at the Emirates in front of a record crowd at this stage of the Women’s Champions League of 22,517.

The victory, which had looked such a tough ask with only 45 minutes of the tie left, sets up a double-header with French champions Lyon and former manager Joe Montemurro in the final four, on the midweeks of April 19-20 and April 26-27.

Grass-gate long forgotten after historic victory

Much of the build-up to Wednesday’s second leg had centred around the state of the Real Madrid pitch from the first, with Renee Slegers even joking Arsenal had “played on rocks” in the Spanish capital in their 2-0 defeat last week.

Real were criticised for forcing their women’s side to play in the 6,000-capacity men’s reserve stadium rather than the Bernabeu, which – coupled with heavy rain in Madrid in the build-up to the game – had left Slegers’ side with a physical task they had not expected – and failed to overcome.

Arsenal got their revenge on the Emirates’ Premier League-standard pitch in Wednesday’s return leg, completing over 450 passes – nearly 100 more than they had managed in Spain as they put their visitors to the sword.

Slegers said: “Football is played on grass and we obviously played on grass in Madrid, but any team will play better football on good pitches.

“The pitch at the Emirates is amazing, and we want to be a team who finds ways to win – so whatever the circumstances, whatever the surface, we want to be able to beat our opponent.

“We’re critical of ourselves in the game away in Madrid, but we’re very happy with our performance today.”

Analysis: Russo will grab the headlines – but Kelly was the star

Sky Sports’ Ron Walker at the Emirates Stadium:

“Arsenal needed someone to step up and rescue their season, which was 45 minutes away from fizzling out at half-time.

“Alessia Russo was the woman to start and finish their rocket of a comeback, but Chloe Kelly, in her finest performance since her January return, was the unsung hero.

“Even as the Gunners toiled in the first half, her deliveries from the right flank were begging to be turned home, and it just took a bit of half-time tinkering from Renee Slegers to get Russo in position at the back post to do that 44 seconds after the break.

“Her delivery for Mariona Caldentey’s equaliser was just as dangerous minutes later. She would never have wanted to see her number come up when she was substituted mid-way through the second period but she at least got to take in the reception she had earned.

“That Arsenal can bring on Beth Mead in her place shows the level of strength the Gunners have in certain positions – and why they will believe they can do this all again, just perhaps a little bit less dramatically, against Lyon next month.”

Slegers: We never stopped believing at half-time

Arsenal head coach Renee Slegers:

On her half-time team talk: “We were energetic in the first half, our press was very good, but in the second half we spoke about how we had such a good squad with players who could come on and make a difference.

“Real Madrid doesn’t, we knew we would make them tired because they hadn’t had very much of the ball, and we talked a bit about what spaces we could find in the final third too.”

On where the result ranks in her time in charge: “We’ve done really good things before, coming back from half-times and setbacks, really good performances against top teams.

“But this is definitely one of them, maybe the clearest one of them, where the game looks like it does and the result is what it is. You have to put the result forward coming back from that, so this is maybe the clearest one.”

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