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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Dom Smith

Arsenal find Stina Blackstenius solution to seal League Cup final berth

Jonas Eidevall believes a central role helped get the best out of Stina Blackstenius after her extra-time goal sent Arsenal into the League Cup Final.

Blackstenius settled a tense match as the Gunners edged past holders Manchester City with a 1-0 win on Wednesday night.

The Swedish two-time Olympic silver medalist has struggled for goals since joining Arsenal from BK Hacken in January last year and Eidevall feels she has drifted wide too often.

But Blackstenius operated more centrally on Wednesday night and Eidevall said: “When you look at Stina’s shots today and look at how central those shots are, that shows she was working well in her position.

Striker solution: Stina Blackstenius booked Arsenal’s place in the League Cup final in March (The FA via Getty Images)

“We came into a phase where Stina was working a bit too much outside on the flanks and she had a couple of games where she didn’t get the goalscoring opportunities either.

“I know Stina will score a lot of goals, it has been a matter of getting her more central, in front of goal, trust more that the ball will go there and not going too early. You see today she had four or five really good opportunities — she is working really, really well on that.”

Arsenal will play either West Ham or Chelsea, who play their semi-final on Thursday, in the final at Selhurst Park on March 5.

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