Tottenham Hotspur Women 0 – 3 Women – Match Report

We made it five wins from our last six games in all competitions with a 3-0 north London derby win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.

It took just two minutes for Alessia Russo to send us into the lead before Frida Maanum headed into the bottom left corner to make it 2-0.

Stina Blackstenius scored shortly after coming on as a second-half substitute in a dominant derby encounter.

what happened

Mariona Caldentey, who replaced Beth Mead in the starting XI after Tuesday’s 4-0 win at Juventus, created our opening goal when she found Russo inside the 18-yard box.

Our centre-forward made no mistake and put the ball into the bottom right corner on her left foot.

20 minutes later, Kim Little – making her 150th appearance for us in the Barclays Women’s Super League alongside Leah Williamson – found Maanum, who had been given too much time and space in the penalty box.

She coolly fired past Becky Spencer to double our lead during a confident, convincing, clinical first half display.

We invited Spurs into the game, albeit just after the half-hour mark, and gave the ball away to Drew Spence, who picked out Bethany England. The latter forced a great save from Daphne van Domselaar, who tipped the powerful strike over the bar with the ball destined for the top right corner.

The following set-piece led to another corner for the home side, taken by Eveliina Summanen. It came out to Jessica Naz, whose first-time effort was too soft to trouble our keeper.

After Mariona and Katie McCabe both delivered free kicks straight into Spencer’s center at the other end, we went into the break with a two goal cushion.

We made a change at half time, Kyra Cooney-Cross came on for Little and the former was called into action early in the second half when she teed up McCabe who hit another free kick straight at Spencer.

Russo crossed for Caitlin Foord, who fired wide of the post, with half an hour remaining after a neat passage of play. Both players then left and Mead and Blackstenius came in to replace them.

Blackstenius almost had a strike straight away when he struck the ball just over the bar after a brilliant run down the left from McCabe. Blackstenius got his goal moments later, finding the back of the net thanks to a smart touch from Mariona.

Spurs had a sight of goal when Summanen sent a free-kick to Spence but her effort was comfortably caught by Van Domselaar. Renee Slegers then made another change, introducing Rosa Kafaji instead of Mariona.

Lotte Wubben-Moy came on for McCabe as our final change of the game with just over five minutes remaining.

what it means

We are fourth in the WSL with 15 points from eight games, four points behind leaders Manchester City.

what’s next

UEFA Women’s Champions League football returns to Arsenal Stadium with the visit of Juventus at 20:00 on Thursday. Then we’re back in WSL action at the Emirates Stadium against Aston Villa at 2pm on Sunday 8th December.

lineups

Tottenham Hotspur XI: Spencer, Neville, Buhler, Hunt (Ahtinen 68), Nilden, Bartrip, Summanen, Spence (Thomas 79), Raso (Vinberg 85), Naz (Gunning-Williams 85), England

Subs (not used): Heeps, James-Turner, Grant, Morris, Csiki

Arsenal XI: van Domselaar, Fox, Williamson, Catley, Mariona (Kafaji 79), Little (C) (Cooney-Cross 46), McCabe (Wubben-Moy 85), Maanum, Walti, Foord (Mead 64), Russo (Blackstenius 64)

Substitutions (not used): Zinsberger, Codina, Hurtig, Wienroither