Matildas superstar Caitlin Foord has netted once and made another as Arsenal won 4-0 at Juventus to put one foot in the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals.
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The striker, one of three Matildas in the Gunners’ squad, played the perfect angled pass to Frida Maanum for Arsenal’s opening goal. She then finished off an impressive 4-0 win at Juventus, arriving to meet a low cross from Australian teammate Kyra Cooney-Cross in the 87th minute.
That was her sixth goal this season in the European campaign.
“I am happy – we came here looking for a win and we got it, with four goals from four different players,” Foord told uefa.com.
“It was a balanced game in the beginning, but in the second half, they started to tire, and we took advantage of that.”
With both sides having lost to Bayern Munich and beaten Norwegian minnows Valerenga, this had quickly shaped up the key fixture in Group C.
Arsenal withstood early pressure before gradually taking control, being rewarded when Foord slipped in Maanum for the opener after 38 minutes.
Besides Foord, Stina Blackstenius and Mariona Caldentey also scored in the closing 15 minutes to secure a victory in Biella, 80km northeast of their opponents’ traditional Turin base.
Along with Foord and Cooney-Cross, who came on as a late substitute, another Aussie in Steph Catley also played for the WSL side.
The result moved the Gunners to six points, three behind Bayern after the German giants beat Valerenga 3-0 later on Tuesday night, but more crucially three points ahead of Juventus, who have yet to go to London.
In Group D, two more Matildas in Mary Fowler and Alanna Kennedy played full games for Manchester City in their 2-0 home victory over Sweden’s Hammarby.
After a slick move down the right, Fowler cut the ball back from the left for Laura Blinkilde Brown to tap home the opener just after the break.
A second with 10 minutes remaining secured a perfect three wins from three and top spot, three points ahead of two-time defending champions Barcelona after their 7-0 thumping of Austria’s St. Poelten.
© AAP