Arsenal into women’s Champions League semis as Russo double seals 3-0 win over Real

LONDON: Alessia Russo scored twice as Arsenal produced a thrilling comeback to beat Real Madrid 3-0 in the women’s Champions League on Wednesday, overturning a two-goal first-leg deficit to reach the semi-finals with a 3-2 aggregate victory.

The Londoners struck three times in the first 15 minutes of the second half to book their place in the next round, where they will face a daunting challenge against eight-time champions Olympique Lyonnais, who beat Bayern Munich earlier on Wednesday.

“It was amazing. It still feels a bit surreal right now, I’ve not really let it sink in yet,” Russo, named player of the match, told TNT Sports.

“We’ve had a lot of belief all week, we knew what we wanted to do and what we’re capable of as a team, and we’ve done that tonight.”

Russo opened the scoring a minute after the break when she tapped in a great cross from Chloe Kelly before Mariona Caldentey made it 2-0 three minutes later with a header off the Manchester City loanee’s second assist.

Russo scored her second in the 59th minute, striking a brilliant half-volley into the top of the net to put Arsenal ahead in the tie, while the England international twice thought she had bagged a hat-trick but saw two efforts disallowed for offside.

The visitors went close to scoring late in the first half when Filippa Angeldahl drew a great save from Arsenal goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar, while Linda Caicedo nearly pushed the match to extra time with a stoppage-time effort that was again denied by Van Domselaar.

Real had held firm under pressure from Arsenal in the first half, as Caldentey and Caitlin Foord both squandered clear-headed chances, but they ultimately faltered, missing out on their first-ever European semi-final.

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“We knew that we were doing well in the first half. We felt good as a team, we felt that we had momentum. We just wanted to be a little more patient in the final third as we knew that we needed to score,” the 26-year-old Russo added.

“Chloe put in some great crosses that set up the first two goals, and we were just persistent. We probably should have had more, to be fair.”