London City Lionesses 0, Arsenal 2.

London City were defeated by Arsenal in front of a club-record 5,440-strong crowd at the CopperJax Community Stadium.  

CopperJax Community Stadium | Sunday 15th March

Goals in either half from Olivia Smith and Stina Blackstenius proved the difference in Bromley. 

Daniëlle van de Donk captained the club for the first time on her 100th Women’s Super League appearance, Malou Marcetto made her first start while Delphine Cascarino came off the bench her debut after recovering from an injury sustained following her January arrival. 

The home side started brightly with former Arsenal winger Freya Godfrey going close from Lucía Corrales’ cut-back.  

Renée Slegers’ side took the lead a quarter of an hour into the contest, Smith edged an opener past home keeper Elene Lete from Chloe Kelly’s delivery. 

The goal settled the visitors who began to dictate possession and the tempo of the fixture without carving many clear-cut opportunities. 

There was one final opportunity on the brink of half-time, Emily Fox going for goal from distance and firing wide of the bottom right corner.

The Gunners came out of the traps at the start of the second period. Mariona Caldentey found Katie McCabe on the edge of the penalty area and she struck over early in the second half. Shortly after, London City conceded possession to Smith, who picked out Alessia Russo, she went around the goalkeeper but couldn’t keep the ball in play.

London City came close to levelling - Finland international Sanni Franssi met Corrales’ cutback but saw her attempt well saved by Anneke Borbe.

Swedish striker Blackstenius then combined with Russo after a fine ball from Caldentey with under 15 minutes remaining to seal the win by placing a first-time strike past Lete. 

London City did not let their heads drop and the response was positive, a goalmouth scramble at the other end resulted in Grace Geyoro firing wide. 

Cascarino looked lively in her 12 minute cameo. 

There was one final moment for the hosts, Borbe got over to her right to catch a free-kick from substitute Kosovare Asllani in the closing stages. 

Reflecting on the match, head coach Eder Maestre said: “We are disappointed with the result. We kept pushing until the end but it was not enough. 

“We carved some chances on the counter-attack but didn’t have a lot of the ball.

“The next step is to be more clinical. 

“I think we are moving forward and learning. We are facing the best teams who are very experienced teams.

“The fans were fantastic today and it was amazing to see so many supporters at our stadium. 

“We have another big game next week against Chelsea and we are determined to keep improving.” 

The result leaves London City in seventh. Next up, they face Chelsea at the Den, Millwall on Saturday 21 March, kick-off 12pm.

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW

TICKETS HERE

Teamsheet: Lete, Fernandez, Pattinson, Goldie (Roddar ’78), Corrales, van de Donk (Asllani ’65), Godfrey (Cascarino ’78), Franssi (Goodwin ’65), Sangaré, Marcetto, Geyoro.