Report as Stina Blackstenius scores 31-minute hat-trick as Arsenal Women demolish Aston Villa Women 4-0 to reach Continental Cup final, where they will play Chelsea Women or Manchester City Women on March 31; Frida Maanum also scores stunning first-half goal for Gunners
By Ron Walker, Digital Football Journalist @Ronnabe
Stina Blackstenius’ first-half hat-trick saw holders Arsenal cruise into the Continental Cup final with a 4-0 win over a poor Aston Villa side.
The Gunners found themselves in complete control with less than 11 minutes gone after Blackstenius first rifled home an opener before bundling in a second barely 90 seconds apart.
Arsenal put the game beyond doubt inside 18 minutes when she curled in the pick of the goals from 20 yards, before Blackstenius sealed the match ball with a deft header from Lotte Wubben-Moy’s cross.
Maanum thought she had added a fifth shortly after the interval but was denied by a narrow offside call.
After that narrow escape, Villa improved to hold their hosts in the second half, but were already soundly beaten – as the Gunners progressed to defend their crown against Chelsea or Man City on March 31.
“I’m very happy to play and score a few goals,” Blackstenius told Sky Sports after full-time. “It’s good for my confidence and I’m going to try to score some more.
“Of course, you want to play as much as possible but it’s really competitive in the team, and we have a strong squad. I just want to play at my best, and see what happens.”
How Arsenal blew Villa away to reach final again
Last season’s Continental Cup represents Jonas Eidevall’s one trophy since he arrived in north London, and the Arsenal manager labelled the idea of retaining the competition as “even more special” ahead of Wednesday’s semi-final.
He named a side that looked like he meant it, making only four changes from the weekend win over Tottenham – including a first start for Leah Williamson since her return from injury.
His side played like it, too. Alessia Russo scuffed an effort into the side netting with less than a minute on the clock, which proved just the beginning of their fast start.
They soon led when Maanum found Blackstenius in space from a square ball, and she rifled in the opener with a rising effort from just inside the area.
It was two in the blink of an eye. Beth Mead’s cross was kept alive at the back post by Russo, and some static Villa defending allowed Blackstenius to bundle in a second barely after she had finished celebrating her first.
Carla Ward may have feared a cricket score after Maanum was given space, albeit further out, to bend in a third from the edge of the area with less than 20 minutes on the clock, but it took until just before the break for the Gunners to extend their lead in familiar fashion.
Another raking delivery was hooked back across goal, this time by Wubben-Moy, and Blackstenius made it four with a glancing header beyond Anna Leat.
Ward took off Alisha Lehmann for Simone Magill at the break, but whatever she tried to change looked to be having little effect when Maanum appeared to have tapped in a fifth within moments of the restart, only to be denied by a late offside flag.
From then the hosts rarely seriously threatened to add to their advantage, but still allowed Eidevall to withdraw Williamson and Mead shortly after the hour mark, with their job well done – and Arsenal heading for their second Conti Cup final in a row.
Eidevall: We can still do better
Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall told Sky Sports:
“It feels very, very good. To win last year was amazing, to have the possibility to win back-to-back shows consistency and that’s where we want to go as a club.
“The performance was good enough to win comfortably, with a margin, but it had highs and lows in it. There was some part of our consistency in the way we played I didn’t like. We misplaced some easy passes, and made things a little bit harder for ourselves at times.
“I couldn’t fault our effort – we worked really hard as a team, recovered and did well enough to keep a clean sheet for it. When we look at the potential we have, and our standards, we should be aiming for the perfect execution all the time and we can do a little bit better than we did.
“Stina is very, very good at being in good goalscoring positions. She works incredibly hard on and off the ball, and I was so pleased to see it pay off for her.
“I’m very lucky to be able to choose between so many good players and see what qualities they have, and what qualities are needed when we start and finish the game. Performances like hers today just strengthen that belief.”
Ward: We played for pride after ‘horribly disappointing’ first half
Aston Villa manager Carla Ward told Sky Sports:
“We’re horribly disappointed with the first half. After the first goal, where we’ve given it away too easily, the second one’s an error we can also do something about.
“When you go 2-0 down after 10 minutes against a world-class Arsenal side with momentum on their side and the crowd behind them, and it goes to two, three, four, the game’s over.
“We were so disappointed with that, and at half-time we managed to tweak the shape, the personnel and we were better. It was about pride in the second half, and we showed that.
“But we can’t turn up and make those errors at a place like this.
“I’ll back the players into the hills, it’s just individual errors, and there were too many of those today. That hurt us in the first half, we had some conversations at half-time about pride, mentality, heart, desire – it was roll our sleeves up or roll over.
“[Goals conceded] is a major concern. We’ve had limited personnel, we’ve had to re-jig the back four a lot this season and play players out of position, but the one thing we’ll do is our best every single day to improve what we’ve got.
“We’ve got seven games left with a limited squad, we’ve got to make the best out of what we’ve got and try to get some results.”
What’s next for Arsenal and Aston Villa?
Arsenal have a week off due to being out of the FA Cup but return to action on Friday March 15 when they head to title rivals Chelsea in the WSL, live on Sky Sports from 6.30pm; kick-off 7pm.
Aston Villa also get some rest before heading to Everton in the WSL on Saturday March 16; kick-off 1pm.
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