Ibrahim Oladamola
Goals from Rafaelle Souza and Stina Blackstenius saw Arsenal complete a superb comeback, drawing 2-2 at Wolfsburg in their Women’s Champions League semi-final first leg.
It was a much-needed result at the end of a damaging week for the Gunners. Their captain Kim Little and vice captain Leah Williamson have both been ruled out for the season with injury, as well as suffering a damaging 1-0 defeat to Manchester United in the WSL on Wednesday.
But Sunday’s draw showed there is plenty of fight left in this Arsenal team yet – although they did not make life easy for themselves.
But the comeback began as Rafaelle Souza nodded home from a corner just before half-time, scoring her first European goal. It was then a superb link-up between Victoria Pelova and Stina Blackstenius that saw the latter tap in the 69th-minute equaliser.
Wolfsburg pushed hard for the third goal late on, but Arsenal survived the onslaught to set up a mouth-watering second leg at the Emirates on May 1 as the Gunners aim to reach their first European final since 2007.
“So I thought it was really important to stick to our identity and I thought the players were so good at doing that. They were completely fearless and I admire that. I’m so proud of them for doing that.”
