Arsenal and Juventus were both beaten on penalties to exit the Women's Champions League. Arsenal Women were beaten by Paris FC 4-2 on penalties, sending the Gunners home and out of the Champions League before the competition begins.
Arsenal Women faced Paris FC Ladies last weekend in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Due to both Arsenal and Paris finishing 3rd in their divisions, they had to face each other in a preliminary round in order to qualify for the Champions League group stages.
The Gunners travelled to the Bilbörsen Arena, in Sweden, for the Women’s Champions League Qualification final round. This saw new Arsenal signing, Alessia Russo, make her second appearance for The Gunners. However, this would be Russo’s last appearance in the Champions League this season.
The North London side didn’t get off to the best of starts, going 2-0 down inside the first hour. Paris defender, Bourdieu, scored two goals within 90 seconds of each other, giving her side a comfortable lead. A Russo strike, and a late Beattie equaliser, managed to pull the Gunners back into the tie.
A goal a piece in extra time, still saw the two sides level. This lead to the game being decided by a penalty shootout, resulting in a 4-2 win Paris FC, seeing Arsenal out of the Champions League.
Arsenal manager, Jonas Eidevall, stated his frustration after the Champions League defeat, “I think the morale, the belief that the players show is astonishing. And I think we do good tactical changes from the side so we create the situations that we want and we can fight our way back into the game.” He continued by saying, “Then going into extra time, I think we start off managing that really well in the first 15 minutes.”
Juventus join Arsenal in exiting the UEFA Women's Champions League after being beaten by Eintracht Frankfurt, 5-4 on penalties. An equaliser from Frankfurt's, Lara Prasnikar, saw the match go the distance and they knocked out Fidanzata D'Italia on penalties.
Arsenal and Juventus will now look ahead to the start of the domestic season, as their primary focus after their exist from the European competition.