Arsenal ‘cannot relax’ following UWCL qualification, says Jonas Eidevall | OneFootball

Jonas Eidevall spoke to the media after Arsenal beat BK Häcken 4-0 (4-1 aggregate) at a bustling Meadow Park on Thursday night.

The head coach expressed his satisfaction with his side’s performance on the occasion, but maintained that the Gunners cannot relax as the Women’s Super League gets underway and further progression in European football is the goal.

A changed lineup

Eidevall chose to start seasoned professional Lia Wälti over younger prodigy Kyra Cooney-Cross in the Arsenal midfield for this decisive tie.

“The reason for it was that it is really important in building against Häcken and exploiting them that we had offensive full-backs and investing there. So we needed to balance that out against a strong counter-attacking team.”

The method behind this approach evidently paid off, with Wälti finding the opener for the North London club, and Cooney-Cross having a crucial involvement in the build-up to Frida Maanum’s second half strike.

The Arsenal manager reflected on the first leg’s 1-0 defeat against BK Häcken, saying: “Our structure was very poor, we lost positional discipline and didn’t get players into the spaces on the non-ball side, especially against a team like Häcken who invest so many players around the ball.”

Embed from Getty Images

Beth Mead was another to play a key role in their victory after coming on as a substitute well into the second half. Eidevall continued, touching on the forward’s impact on the Arsenal result: “Today we are so much better at that. That means sometimes we get Beth Mead inside, sometimes she needs to stay wide. I think today her and Mariona Caldentey are much better in their decision making on when to stay wide and when to stay inside with the structure we need to have in attack.”

An era of redemption

After falling out of the UWCL in the first round of qualifying last year, it was crucial for the Gunners to make their return to European football this time out.

“It was really important, we have built a squad to be in this position to compete in the group stage,” declared Eidevall. “I think we have been growing with our performances, we have the results we wanted. But we can’t relax, the season starts now for us and we are in the four competitions we want to be in and we want to make the most of that.”

Mead added to the manager’s satisfied but determined attitude when she also shared her thoughts with the press, asserting: “It’s the minimum standard at Arsenal that we need to be in Europe and playing Champions League regularly in the group stages, so it’s nice to get it over the line tonight.”

Embed from Getty Images

“The Emirates is a European stadium, it deserves Champions League football and we can deliver that on the men’s and women’s side I think we give the Emirates the treatment that it deserves,” concluded Eidevall passionately.

Arsenal have been drawn in Group C, and they now prepare to face Bayern Munich, Juventus and Vålerenga in the hopes of progressing further.

Related articles from Her Football Hub: