Arsenal face tough task scaling Wolfsburg’s green wall in WCL

Jonas Eidevall has watched back the tapes and crunched the numbers. He reckons 1-1 in the first leg was a fair result. But crucially he also feels his side have room for improvement in the second, and in a Champions League quarter-final that may be decided on the finest of margins, that may just be enough.

It is nine long years since Arsenal graced the semi-finals of the biggest club competition in women’s football. Lotte Wubben-Moy’s 89th-minute equaliser last week has made their task a good deal easier, particularly given the fact that away goals will not apply. But standing in their way are the green wall of Wolfsburg, a team in their own rhythm and winning groove, unbeaten in 14 competitive games and gracing Wolfsburg’s main VW Stadium for the first time since 2013.

Most weeks, Wolfsburg’s women play at the smaller AOK-Stadion in front of crowds of a few thousand. But the decision to grant them the larger stage is a measure of the size of this game, with over 10,000 spectators expected in attendance. “This is why we play football,” midfielder Jill Roord observed earlier this week, and Wolfsburg will hope to continue the strong run of form that has carried them to the top of the Bundesliga as they attempt to regain their title from Bayern Munich.

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Rivals Hoffenheim and Eintracht Frankfurt have been handily dispatched in recent weeks, while Bayern themselves await in a title showdown on Sunday afternoon. Round these parts they call them “Englische Wochen” – two games in a week. And while Wolfsburg’s superior drilling and conditioning have carried them this far, there may just be cracks in the edifice that Arsenal – who enjoyed a weekend