Arsenal head coach Renee Slegers joked ‘football is meant to be played on grass’ after masterminding last night’s astonishing Champions Leaguecomeback against Real Madrid.
Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, the Gunners, roared on by a record European crowd at the Emirates Stadium, booked their place in the semi-finals against Lyon following a three-goal second half salvo.
Alessia Russo was at the heart of the turnaround with the England forward’s two goals helping Slegers’ side fight back from last week’s setback and claim a 3-2 aggregate victory.
Manchester City loanee Chloe Kelly continued her stunning return to the capital with two assists, one of which was for former Barcelona midfielder Mariona Caldentey’s header that levelled the tie.
Gunners boss Slegers, who took over in October as interim before being named permanent coach in January, will now lead her team against Lyon in the semi-finals next month.
We’ve done really good things before and had good performances against good teams but this is definitely one of them,’ Slegers said when asked if the win was the best night of her tenure.
This is maybe the clearest one where you play an opponent away, the game looks like it does and then you come back a week after and put a performance and result forward. So I think this is probably the clearest one.’
Arsenal scored three times in 14 minutes after half-time to turn the tie around.
Russo’s first came after Caitlin Foord surged infield and fed Kelly to cross for her England team-mate to apply the simple finish.
After Caldentey’s header, Russo’s clinical finish in the area following a Katie McCabe free-kick took her tally in Europe for the campaign to seven.
Victory felt like vindication for an Arsenal team that felt aggrieved last week after they were forced to play on a sub-standard pitch which club legend Ian Wright branded a ‘disgrace’.
There were no such issues last night as Arsenal, playing on the lush Emirates carpet, swept their opposition aside with a blistering attacking performance.