Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall has told his side they must learn from their Champions League exit to Wolfsburg if they want to become “a top European team”.
The Gunners were knocked out at the quarter-final stage last night after losing the second leg of their tie 2-0 in Germany.
They went into the game off the back off a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Emirates Stadium, but an early effort from former Arsenal forward Jill Roord and then an own-goal from Leah Williamson led to them being eliminated.
Wolfsburg dominated most of the match and Arsenal’s late rally, which included Vivianne Miedema hitting the crossbar, wasn’t enough, with Eidevall urging them to learn from the loss.
“We were better in the second half,” he said. “We showed a better version of ourselves, but the players never gave up and they took the game into almost the dying minutes with that penalty situation, which could have given us another life into the game.
“We need to learn from this game here if we want to be a top European team. When you play in the Champions League, and that’s the best thing with it, you get exposed to the best club teams in Europe and obviously you learn a lot about yourself, both on an individual level and on a team level.
“That gives you a very clear picture of where you need to go and when you know where you need to go, then the journey becomes easier on how you plan.
“It provides us a really clear picture on where we want to be as a team and also as individuals in the future.”
Arsenal had to contend with a hot atmosphere in Germany, with over 11,000 fans at the Volkswagen Arena - which is where Wolfsburg’s men’s team play.
Kick-off in Germany was delayed by five minutes to clear confetti, which had fallen on the pitch, and after that Wolfsburg started fast.
Roord returned to haunt her old club and, had it not been for some good defending and goalkeeping, Arsenal would have been further behind.
As it was, they stayed in the game until Williamson inadvertently put the ball in her own net from Sveindis Jane Jonsdottir’s cross in the 72nd minute.
“We’ve progressed a lot since the last time we were at this stage in the Champions League against PSG [in 2020],” said Arsenal captain Kim Little.
“But we still now can see we’ve got a little bit more to go to be able to compete and win in these latter stages of the Champions League.”
Arsenal still have plenty to play for this season, though, as they are fighting with Chelsea to win the Women’s Super League and will also face the Blues in the semi-finals of the FA Cup this month. First up, however, they must get ready to travel to Leicester on Sunday.
“There are things we need to develop, and we need to spend the rest of this season and next year’s pre-season in order to develop it, but also to say, now is the time to refocus, be sharp and get ready for Sunday,” said Eidevall.
“It’s one thing to lose one game, but we need to be ready for the next one and that requires a lot from everyone.”
