SK SLAVIA PRAHA -
WHAT HAPPENED
Vivianne Miedema scored her 100th goal for the club on Thursday night as we booked our place in the group stage of the UEFA Women’s Champions League with a 4-0 victory over Slavia Prague.
The Netherlands international is now the fastest Arsenal player in history to reach that incredible milestone, doing so in just 110 appearances.
Jonas Eidevall’s side came into this fixture with a three-goal advantage after a dominant first leg at Meadow Park - and there was more of the same at the Sinobo Stadium, as we controlled the tie from start to finish.
Following an uneventful first-half with only a handful of chances, we burst into life after the restart with Miedema opening the scoring on the hour mark, and in some style too.
Beth Mead picked up the ball on the left wing and drifted inside, before sending an inch-perfect pass behind Slavia’s defence and into the path of Miedema, who coolly fired home with a first-time finish.
By now, Miedema was in full flow, skipping past defenders with ease, and soon after she doubled her tally on the night, receiving the ball inside the area from Anna Patten and finishing into the bottom left corner.
Miedema has scored seven hat-tricks during her time in north London - eight if you include her double hat-trick against Bristol City - but this one was arguably the most important of them all.
Less than two minutes after scoring her second of the evening, she found herself back in front of goal - and in classic Miedema style, converted her 100th in Arsenal colours with an abundance of class, skill and precision.
After dropping deep into midfield and combining with Katie McCabe, the Netherlands international received the ball inside the penalty area and dummied a shot - forcing two defenders and the goalkeeper to fall to the ground - before nonchalantly poking the ball into bottom corner.
Miedema now stands as the only Arsenal player in our history to have recorded more goals than starts (97) - and what makes that stat all the more impressive is that none of those goals arrived from the penalty spot.
Kim Little, however, is somewhat of a specialist from 12 yards and having already scored a penalty in the reverse leg, stepped up to find the top left corner after Nikita Parris was fouled inside the area.
With five wins from five and a place in the Champions League group stage confirmed, it’s safe to say that we’ve made a dream start to life under Eidevall in 2021/22.
WHAT IT MEANS
We’re through to the group stage of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, where we’ve been placed into Pot Two alongside Lyon, Wolfsburg and Breidablik.
Our group stage opponents, involving one team from each pot, will be confirmed on Monday. Stay close to Arsenal.com and our social media channels for further information.
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