Arsenal’s trio of Matildas have won the women’s League Cup just minutes after being rocked when a teammate collapsed on the pitch.
Up against a Chelsea team that sorely missed Sam Kerr’s big-game goalscoring habit, Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley played a crucial hand in the goal that sealed the 1-0 win while Kyra Cooney-Cross also saw late action in extra time.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Stadium falls silent after Frida Maanum collapses.
Newsletters: Our top sports news direct to your inbox. Subscribe now
All made an impact, Foord and Catley’s fresh legs and Cooney-Cross’s passing stretching the game — ultimately decisively.
For 116 minutes the two clubs had slugged each other to a standstill at Wolverhampton Wanderers’ ground, the contest only pausing when Arsenal’s Frida Maanum collapsed on the pitch and needed urgent medical help.
The stadium fell into silence while Maanum, 24, was treated with an oxygen mask.
“Frida is conscious, talking and in a stable condition,” Arsenal said after the match.
“She will continue to be monitored closely by our medical team.
“We’re all with you, Frida.”
Maanum’s good friend Stina Backstenius went on to score the winner for Arsenal in the 116th minute.
“Obviously it is devastating seeing one of your teammates go down like that and we hope that she is ok,” star forward Alessia Russo said.
“I think it was written in the stars that her best mate went and scored the winner for her.
“Frida is a massive player and plays with every single bit of her body, she did that again today and we just hope she is ok.”
The break in play came with a penalty shootout looming.
But Aussies Catley and Foord continued to link up on the left flank and one more attack late in extra time settled it.
Catley released Foord, who cut inside in trademark style and worked the ball to Backstenius and, suddenly, the stalemate was broken just minutes before the full-time whistle.
“I’m sure she had Frida in the back of her mind when she put that away,” Foord told Optus Sport.
Arsenal held on to deny Chelsea a possible quadruple of league, FA Cup, league cup and European Cup, a feat only once achieved by an English team, Arsenal women themselves in 2007.
Post-match the managers confronted each other with Chelsea’s Emma Hayes pushing Arsenal’s Jonas Eidevall, later accusing the Swede of “male aggression” on the touchline.
Eidevall denied this and said others “need to look in the mirror”.
The disagreement was caused by Eidevall taking exception to Chelsea using an alternative ball for a quick throw-in late in the game when they had insisted pre-match on not using a multi-ball system.
The match took place in front of a record crowd for a League Cup final with 21,462 fans on hand.
– with AAP