{"id":20673,"date":"2023-04-23T16:40:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-23T16:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/soccer-arsenal-fight-back-to\/"},"modified":"2023-04-23T16:41:53","modified_gmt":"2023-04-23T16:41:53","slug":"soccer-wolfsburg-held-2-2-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/soccer-wolfsburg-held-2-2-after\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer-Wolfsburg held 2-2 after Arsenal rally in Champions League semi"},"content":{"rendered":"

WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) -Twice European champions VfL Wolfsburg let a two-goal lead slip against Arsenal as the visitors fought back to earn a 2-2 draw in Sunday’s Women’s Champions League semi-final first leg.<\/p>\n

Ewa Pajor and Sveindis Jane Jonsdottir gave the home side a 2-0 lead inside the first half hour but Arsenal reduced the deficit through Rafaelle Souza on the stroke of halftime before Stina Blackstenius levelled in the second period.<\/p>\n

The comeback will give Arsenal a boost ahead of the second leg at Emirates Stadium on May 1 after the Londoners, who have been decimated by injuries, lost captain Kim Little and Leah Williamson to season-ending injuries earlier this week.<\/p>\n

“Days like today make me even more proud to be a part of this group. Unbelievable result to get back from 2-0 down,” said Arsenal defender Jen Beattie, who was player of the match.<\/p>\n

“I genuinely cannot wait to get back to the Emirates next week and see all our fans.”<\/p>\n

Wolfsburg were missing German striker Alexandra Popp but scored after 19 minutes when Jonsdottir chested down a lob and spotted Pajor making a run in behind the defence, finding the striker with a clinical through ball for her to fire home.<\/p>\n

Arsenal looked to recover from the blow but the Germans doubled their lead five minutes later after a defensive mistake.<\/p>\n

Rafaelle’s attempted pass back inside the box did not find Beattie and Jonsdottir’s eyes lit up as the ball fell at her feet, with the Icelandic player beating the keeper.<\/p>\n

However, the Arsenal defender made up for the error when she timed her leap well to head home a corner at the back post just before halftime to give the visitors a lifeline.<\/p>\n

Arsenal then equalised after 69 minutes when Dutchwoman Victoria Pelova received the ball behind the defence on the right and crossed for Blackstenius who had a simple tap-in.<\/p>\n

Wolfsburg immediately began piling more pressure on the visitors, with Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall willing his team to push up as they were forced deeper into their own half.<\/p>\n

Former Arsenal midfielder Jill Roord nearly made it 3-2 for Wolfsburg late in the game but she dragged her shot inches wide of the far post as Arsenal managed to cling on for the draw.<\/p>\n

In the other semi-final, Barcelona edged Chelsea 1-0 in the first leg at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon and Ken Ferris)<\/p>\n

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WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) -Twice European champions VfL Wolfsburg let a two-goal lead slip against Arsenal as the visitors fought back to earn a 2-2 draw in Sunday’s Women’s Champions League semi-final first leg. Ewa Pajor and Sveindis Jane Jonsdottir gave the home side a 2-0 lead inside the first half hour but Arsenal reduced the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":20674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1219],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-20673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-sports","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportSportsNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3M06V-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20673"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20687,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20673\/revisions\/20687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}