Arsenal Women 4-0 BK Hacken
by Layth Yousif
at Meadow Park

A RELIEVED Jonas Eidevall insisted Arsenal’s season “starts now” after they finally ensured qualification for the Women’s Champions League group stage after early season travails. 

After losing the first leg of their qualifying tie 1-0 with BK Hacken in Sweden last week, Eidevall’s side eased to a deserved 4-0 victory at a rain-lashed Meadow Park on Thursday evening. 

Lia Walti opened the scoring by crashing a superb, long-range effort into the net off the underside of the bar, prior to summer signing Mariona Caldentey doubling the lead before half time, as a lively Arsenal side dominated the visitors from Gothenburg. 

England international Beth Mead made it 3-0 shortly after the interval, prior to substitute Frida Maanum making it four to seal an emphatic victory for Arsenal.

Speaking after the match, Eidevall said: “One part of the season starts now. That I'm really happy for.”

“I think we’ve grown with our performances. We’ve got the results we wanted. We can’t relax, the season starts for us now here. We are in all four competitions we want to be in and need to make the most out of it.

“We built the squad for competing, we need the squad to compete. We’re ready to play these games.”

Arsenal join Women’s Super League rivals Chelsea and Manchester City in the next round — the first time three English teams will compete in the group stages in its current format.

Arsenal have been drawn in the same pool as Bayern Munich in Group C, as well as Juventus and Norwegian team Valerenga.