Arsenal on brink of UEFA Women's Champions League qualification after thrashing Bristol City in Women's Super League
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Updated 14/04/2024 at 21:09 GMT
Jonas Eidevall's side returned to action after the international break with an emphatic 5-0 win over a struggling Bristol City to leave Arsenal tantalisingly close to sealing a top-three finish and Women's Champions League qualification for next season. The Gunners' title hopes are effectively over with four games to spare, but they look set to compete on the biggest European stage once again.
BOREHAMWOOD, ENGLAND - APRIL 14: Alessia Russo of Arsenal celebrates scoring her team's fifth goal with Cloe Lacasse during the Barclays Women´s Super League match between Arsenal FC and Bristol City at Meadow Park on April 14, 2024 in Borehamwood, Englan
Image credit: Getty Images
Arsenal moved to within touching distance of securing UEFA Women's Champions League qualification after a 5-0 thrashing of table-topping Bristol City at Meadow Park in the Women's Super League.
Lionesses’ duo Beth Mead and Alessia Russo both scored a brace to leave The Gunners nine points clear of fourth-placed Manchester United with only four games left of the season.
Meanwhile, this defeat moves The Robins a step closer to relegation, with Lauren Smith's side seven points adrift of West Ham United at the bottom of the table.
Mead broke the deadlock in the seventh minute after reacting quickest to the loose ball, as Caitlin Foord's initial effort cannoned off the post.
Eidevall's side were in dominant form and doubled their lead when Mead got her second of the game with another close-range finish in the 32nd minute.
Any hopes of an unlikely comeback from the visitors were effectively extinguished two minutes later, when Ella Powell diverted Steph Catley's cross past her own goalkeeper Fran Bentley.
Russo added the icing on the cake after half-time with her two goals; the first came just shy of the hour mark as her angled finish inside the box flew past Bentley, before she curled a first-time finish into the bottom corner in the 73rd minute.
Eidevall's side know that another victory at home to Leicester City on April 21 will guarantee UEFA Women's Champions League football next season, or if Manchester United fail to beat Tottenham Hotspur on the same day.
As for Bristol City, they continue what is looking like an increasingly futile bid to beat the drop when they host Liverpool a day earlier on April 20.
Smith’s side have won just one of their 18 WSL games to date and succumbed to a 13th consecutive league game without a win, meaning an immediate return to the second tier for last season’s Women’s Championship winners looks inevitable.
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