Arsenal Ladies 3 - 2 Glasgow City: Reaction

It was a much closer affair in the second leg of Arsenal's matchup with Glasgow City, but the Ladies were able to take care of a City team that really can rock the home field advantage scales. With an aggregate of 6-2, let's say hello to another UWCL quarterfinal for the Gunners.

0-1 Suzanne Lappin 2'

1-1 Rachel Yankey 12'

2-1 Jordan Nobbs 69'

2-2 Rachel Corsie 79'

3-2 ALEX SCOTT 90'+ 3'

As I said earlier, things were much more back and forth in this match than in the home leg for Arsenal, and a good deal of that had to do with Glasgow City's home field advantage. Sold out crowd paired with an artificial field and a pretty chilly temperature did have things a bit in City's favor. But did we really doubt the perseverance of Yankey an co? No. NO.

Even after Suzanne Lappin, off a Jess Fishlock corner mind you, send home a header in the second minute? Ok maybe there were a few flashbacks to the 2008-2009 quarterfinal tie with Umea, but all Arsenal needed was a few away goals to seal up a quarterfinals trip.

Captain Rachel Yankey decided to take matters into her own hands and grab one of those needed away goals for her squad. The goal was all Yankey, as she turned a defender at the top of the box, dribbled into the area, and sent that bad boy home. With one away goal a good deal of the pressure was removed from Arsenal's shoulders, however, Glasgow City was far from done fighting for their own quarterfinals berth.

Early in the second half, Arsenal continued to attack and press for that second away goal to put their quarterfinals appearance beyond doubt. Jordan Nobbs delivered. After some chaos in the box Nobbs collected a bouncing ball and put the Gunners up 2-1. My goodness, aren't we happy Nobbs signed a new contract?

City would equalize once again, pesky aren't they, through a goal from Captain Rachel Corsie. Fishlock racked up another assist with a great cross in, and Corsie was there to finish. One thing that Arsenal is really going to need to work on heading into the quarterfinals is marking on crosses into the box. With one goal from a corner and another from a cross in the run of the play, its a bit concerning to see. We'll get to the teams Arsenal could be facing later in this article, but they are some teams that know how to finish on crosses, and everywhere else on the field for that matter.

While a tie would have been sufficient for Arsenal to advance, Alex Scott likes to win things so she scored a goal in stoppage time to cap off a very nice round of 16 performance from the Gunners and crushing Glasgow's "City of Dreams" (never forget). Also of note, Queen Kelly Smith (in case you haven't gathered it, Smith is and will be referred to as Queen Smith on this blog) was in the game once again. In fact, she says she isn't ready to retire. These are a few of my favorite things.

Now while Arsenal works on defensive marking, we can take a look on who they may be drawn with for quarterfinal action. The final eight hasn't been finalized but currently includes: Wolfsburg, Birmingham City, and Barcelona.

EDIT: The final eight are Arsenal, Wolfsburg, Birmingham City, Barcelona, Neulengbach, Torres, Tyreso, and in the mother of all upsets Turbine Potsdam. Potsdam knocked out last year's runners up, Lyon.