Arsenal  0-1  Djurgården/Älvsjö
Djurgården win 2-1 on aggregate

Uefa Women’s Cup
Semi-final, second leg
Borehamwood FC
15 April 2005

A disappointing performance in front of a highly supportive home crowd saw Arsenal, for the second time in three seasons, tumble out of Europe’s biggest women’s club competition at the semi-final stage.

After a solid display had earned them a 1-1 draw in their away leg at Stockholm’s Råsunda Stadion, the Gunners went into their home leg confident of becoming the first British team to reach the UEFA Cup final.

But they failed to build on a reasonable start and Victoria Svensson’s 39th minute goal proved enough to put out the Gunners, whose woes were added to with a red card for central defender Leanne Champ and a second half floodlight failure.

"It was a fair result," admitted Arsenal manager Vic Akers. "We played out of our skins in the first leg, but tonight we played nowhere near as well as we did over there. We never troubled them enough and we didn’t deserve to go through."

Captain Faye White, who will again be opposing striker Svensson when she skippers England against Sweden at June’s Women’s Euro 2005, said: "It was so disappointing after the way we played out there, but we gave them a run for their money and showed we can compete with a team who are considered one of the best in Europe."

Arsenal started the game well enough and Scotland striker Julie Fleeting forced goalkeeper Maja Astrom into a good 18th minute save from a well directed header.

But midway through the first half Djurgården took control and struck the decisive goal in the 39th minute, when Svensson scrambled the ball in from a Sara Johansson pass following dreadful defending by the home side.

"It was a poor goal defensively," conceded Akers, though Svensson admitted: "It came off my heel and it wasn’t the nicest goal I’ve scored – but it was one of the most important."

Johansson missed two good chances to increase Djurgården’s lead in the second half, which was held up for 17 minutes after the floodlights went out.

Arsenal’s bid to grab an equaliser was then damaged by England defender Champ’s 78th minute sending off following a challenge on Svensson right in front of the visiting team’s dug-out.

Akers was incensed by the decision to red card his defender and blamed what he thought was Svensson’s over-reaction to the tackle. "A great player like that doesn’t need to do those things," said the Arsenal manager; to which Svensson responded: "He should look at the video!"

Ironically, Arsenal produced their most threatening spell of the match after being reduced to 10 players and both Fleeting and White went close to grabbing a goal that would have taken the match into extra time.

But the Swedish champions ran out deserving winners, to the delight of coach Mikael Soderman. "We didn’t play well in the first leg," he said, "but tonight I as much happier.

"It was as tough as we expected, but we fought throughout the 90 minutes and I am delighted to be in the final."