Few displays as dominant as this will finish 1-0 but that won’t matter to Arsenal, Frida Maanum’s goal enough to earn them victory over Rosenborg and a place in the second round of Champions League qualifying.
Arsenal played some truly beautiful football for 90 minutes, never dipping below 80% possession and accruing 29 shots to five. All that was missing was more to show for it on the scoreboard.
Jonas Eidevall spent part of his pre-match press conference extolling the unpredictability of football and described trying to “get a real understanding and grip of this dynamic and challenging game” as “the lifelong quest”.
This season’s quest got under way in style at Boreham Wood, with Arsenal beating Rangers 6-0 to reach this qualifying round one final against Rosenborg, but progressing to the group stage is not an easy ask.
Last season Eidevall’s side crashed out at this stage, losing to Paris FC on penalties. That exit, after the injury-hit squad had battled to earn a place in qualifying, has haunted the team since. In every interview around the start of this campaign, the determination to right that wrong has been clear.
It would be an understatement to say that Arsenal showed a real understanding of the job facing them here. Rosenborg had shocked Atlético Madrid on penalties to set up this tie, Arsenal had to be on it, and on it they were.
Fluid, dynamic and incisive, the home team forced the Norwegian side into the lowest of blocks, every player bar the forward Rebecka Holum attempting to soak up the constant pressure.
Unchanged from the defeat of Rangers, it took Arsenal a little longer to find the breakthrough, but it came in the 19th minute, and Wednesday’s hat-trick hero Caitlin Foord turned provider, whipping a cross-cum-shot in from the right that was saved by the goalkeeper Rugile Rulyte. Mathilde Harviken scuffed her clearance, however, and Maanum fired in from close range.
In the second half, Arsenal picked up where they had left off, Alessia Russo forcing a smart save with a header to add to her nodded effort that grazed the top of the bar in the first half. As the game wore on, Rosenborg were granted brief respite, able to escape their half and venture into enemy territory on occasion. Holum was even able to sweep a long-range effort past Manuela Zinsberger but the flag rightly went up, the forward miles offside beforehand.
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With no more goals to celebrate, the Arsenal fans in the North Bank entertained themselves for a good 10 minutes singing a new song for the summer recruit Mariona Caldentey, “Shake it Caldentey, twist and shout … ” ringing around the stadium as the standing block behind the Rosenborg goal bounced up and down, matching the energy they were seeing on the pitch.
In the 70th minute it was time for change, with the forward Stina Blackstenius coming on in place of Maanum. Arsenal were edging closer to the second, twice denied by the crossbar shortly after Blackstenius’s entrance. Russo, having dropped behind the Sweden forward, was the first to rattle the woodwork with an effort from the edge of the box, before Kyra Cooney-Cross did the same from an almost identical position.
In the end Maanum’s goal was enough and Arsenal go into the draw for round two on Monday, where Manchester City’s campaign begins.
