Arsenal 1-0 Twente: Beth Mead scores as Gunners secure place in Women’s Champions League knockouts

As has been an all too familiar story this season, Arsenal dominated and looked comfortable, but couldn’t score enough goals to keep the match safe.

Fortunately for them, Twente didn’t offer much in attack: an unmarked header from Sophie Proost midway through the first half, but the visitors’ only other shot of the evening didn’t arrive until the 84th minute.

“We could have maybe taken a little more risk in the final third. We had some really good chances today and we didn’t put some of them in the back of the net, which is very frustrating,” Mead told Disney+.

“We obviously want to score more goals. We had chances to do that. We weren’t ruthless enough in front of goal today. When you have chances, you have to score.”

That said, Arsenal’s early pressing was effective and set the tone for a crucial victory.

Caldentey, who became the second youngest player in history to reach 80 Women’s Champions League appearances, was particularly impressive, while Olivia Smith and Mead caused plenty of problems on the flanks.

Russo showed her creative qualities by diving deep and setting up Mead to score, but on this occasion she was unable to add to her competition-leading four goals.

Slegers will be disappointed not to give Leah Williamson bench minutes as expected, but it was not the right time to introduce a defender who has not played since the European Championship final.

Mead said a top-four finish remained the target, but admitted his side had not been at their best at times this season.

“We were very close in many games. We let ourselves down in a few moments, the first half of Bayern Munich was really good, the second half we let ourselves down,” she said.

“We know we can compete, we just have to put things together and get results.”

Ultimately, Arsenal needed to win and they did just that, but they will need to be more ruthless if they want to defend their title.