GROUND DOWN? FA Cup quarter-final. Arsenal 0 Brighton 2

At the Emirates under Renée Slegers this season, Arsenal remain unbeaten. At Meadow Park it’s a very different story, as the Gunners fell in yet another domestic cup match at Borehamwood.

Last time it was against Manchester United in the League Cup, where the tie could have gone either way. This time they lost to Brighton in the FA Cup, who came with a game plan and were far more convincing victors. Helen M Jerome talks to the protagonists on both sides.

Make no mistake, Brighton totally deserved this victory. They were first to every ball, tight to every challenge, winning headers and scrapping for everything on every part of Meadow Park’s infamous pitch.

And the pitch was something that came up when chatting to both Brighton head coach Dario Vidosic and player of the match, Fran Kirby (celebrating, above left). The ground had taken a pounding in the last few days, and the other variable was the blustery wind, which was hard for both defences to judge. Vidosic and Kirby spoke of changing their game plan and style once they heard about the pitch and felt the wind inside the ground.

As for Arsenal, they’d just come out the other side of three huge London derbies, two with Chelsea in the Champions League, and the other a North London Derby victory over Spurs. They’d barely caught their collective breath when coming into this FA Cup quarter-final, and it showed.

Despite six changes to the starting line-up, Renée Slegers’ Gunners looked weary, and yes, flat. The centre of both the defence and midfield were overrun. The attack was well marshalled by the Seagulls, blocking, leaping and squeezing.

Supreme

It was also a tale of two keepers. In the first half, both Arsenal’s Daphne Van Domselaar (above, left) and Brighton’s Chiamaka Nnadozie (above, right) saved everything, tipping over, punching and making point blank saves with hands and feet. Second half, Nnadozie reigned supreme, with Hayes and Minami solid in front of her, while Van Domselaar frankly lacked cover.

It was 0-0 at half-time, then Brighton took off Kiko Seike and put on Spanish striker Carla Camacho. Straightaway they took the handbrake off and surged forward, the strings being pulled by Kirby (of course) who set up both goals. First a sharp pass to Madison Haley, who finished with a strike into the top left corner with her fierce, first touch just three minutes into the second half. Cue delirium.

Then on 63 minutes the Seagulls won a corner next to their loud and enthusiastic fans. The Arsenal defence seemed frozen as the ball came over and was headed into the top right corner of the net by Caitlin Hayes, unchallenged, and it soared over Van Domselaar’s outstretched hands.

Both sides made endless substitutes, but whether it was Alessia Russo or Olivia Smith, Caitlin Foord or Katie McCabe, Brighton didn’t give them an inch. Even when the fourth official put the board up for 8 added minutes, it felt beyond the Gunners’ reach.

So Brighton go into the FA Cup semi-final, with Wembley potentially just one game away…

I spoke to Brighton head coach Dario Vidosic and Fran Kirby just after the final whistle, before getting Arsenal head coach Renée Slegers’ verdict. Read on…

Dario Vidosic, Brighton head coach

Tell me about your game plan today because it worked to perfection.

Yeah, look, we had an idea of when we wanted to come in.

I wasn’t too sure about the pitch.

This is my first time coming here and I got a message in the morning saying that it’s not in the best condition; that it’s pretty chopped up after two games that were played on it over the weekend.

So we spoke in the hotel that this could be a thing. We spoke how we can alter a little bit maybe in the build, that we just go a little bit direct in this phase.

Not do too much around the goal, because the passes are longer and the ball can bobble, and we can get ourselves in trouble.

Then once we came out, the girls warmed up, and there was a lot of talk that it was very difficult to play on.

So we just said let’s go a little bit more direct in the first phase, once we get in their half.  

That’s when we’ll try to play our football and we executed everything really, really well.

We kept them fairly quiet with the quality they possess, and we’ll take a lot of confidence from this one. 

We’ll break away now for the international break and then we will attack the last block of the season with a lot of optimism.

I thought your keeper, Chiamaka Nnadozie, was one of the players of the match. She was exceptional.

She was, and she’s been terrific all season when she’s been called upon.

She wasn’t too busy today, she claimed a few fantastic crosses, but didn’t have a lot to do in terms of shot-stopping.

But I think that’s the life of a goalkeeper.

Sometimes it’s one or two moments, you have to be ready, and she was terrific as well, along with all the other girls.

The change you made at half-time as well, it made quite a difference [Seike off and Camacho on]. You really pushed them.

Yeah, that was a forced change.

Kiko [Seike] was struggling.

She felt something in the warm-up.

She tried to give everything she could.

She just said she couldn’t go any further.

So fingers crossed she’s okay.

We just managed to get almost everyone back and healthy.

It wouldn’t be good now if we have another one going onto the injury beds.

So, you know, fingers crossed.

So, that was more about a forced change at half-time.

The two goals were both very different, and you made a fast start in the second half.

Yeah, it was.

We spoke about that belief throughout the game and then at halftime as well.

I think we saw from the first half that we were there, that we could compete and it was just little things, little decisions, little technical errors that were letting down the good work that we were doing.

But, again, we believed, we came out, took the goals brilliantly when they came. You know, practised those set pieces throughout the week and to see it get executed.

Then also the goal from Maddie [Madison Haley, above, right] as well.

We knew these were some spaces that we could attack and, very, very pleased with the game today.

And who are you hoping for in the next round?

Whoever they give us, we’re not too fussed.

Fran Kirby

So how does that feel?

Yeah, incredible.

Really, really nice to make another semi-final for me personally and for the club.

And, yeah, everyone is just absolutely buzzing.

It felt like game plan worked really well today.

Yeah, it’s something obviously that we’ve spoken about for a while now.

We knew maybe they were going to be a little bit tired coming to it.

They had a tough Champions League game, but we knew we had to turn up and perform as well.

I mean, we spoke about the conditions of the pitch and the wind before the game, and we knew we had to change a little bit maybe, than how we normally play.

But I think everyone did it really well and everyone stuck to the game plan and ultimately everyone just worked so, so hard.

You could see at the end there, people jumping in front of the ball, trying to make tackles and try and block it.

So that’s the kind of belief that we have in the changing room now, and it’s growing into something special.

I also think you are maybe underestimated, in the league.

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, look, I think we haven’t been as consistent as we would like to have been in the league.

I think there’s been a couple of results that maybe we haven’t been too happy with, performances as well.

But we know the style of play that we want to play, and we know that we have some really, really good players in the changing room.

Maybe the inconsistency has been our downfall this year, but we also know what we’re capable of, and we showed that again today.

So exciting isn’t it?

Yeah. Really exciting.

Really exciting moment.

And I always say to the girls, you know, going to the FA Cup Final and playing at Wembley is one of the best days of your life.

From the minute you wake up, from the minute that the day is over, it’s just so special, and it’s something that I want to experience again as a player.

It’s been a while now, so, yeah, hopefully we can go one step further.

Renée Slegers, Arsenal head coach

Do you think it was an after-the-Lord-Mayor’s-Show, rather flat performance today?

We always want to bring the energy.

The urgency to win all the margins on the pitch, because there was a lot about reading the flights of the ball, doubling down, second balls, getting it on the ground, react early and getting those margins on your side is important in a game like this.

They have to be super switched-on and that creates urgency on the pitch.

I think sometimes we did that okay and sometimes we didn’t do that well enough.

It felt like Brighton had a really strong game plan – and they stuck to it. Every single Brighton player raised their game today…

Yeah, they were going for it.

They were hungry and we could feel it.

They were competing and they were giving everything.

But that’s something we know that an opponent will bring, if you look at the games they have left in the season, this is a key game for them.

And I said they brought that, and it was about small margins, I think, and quite an equal game.

But they have more energy, more urgency and maybe also one of the reasons why they finished the chances that they got. They were clinical.

Arsenal play Brighton again, this time away in the league, and you need to win that, so what have you learned from today?

We’ll see where we are at then, because it will be a busy next block.

Of course, we’ll take the learnings, and Brighton will do that as well.

They always come with new things and do things differently.

You have to be ready for them, but there’s a couple of games before Brighton.

Photos: Helen M Jerome