Tranmerekat on Tour: Hungry like the Wolves

Arsenal WFC v Vfl Wolfsburg at the Emirates Stadium in the UWCL semi-final second leg

The Gunners play Die Wölfinnen at Ashburton Grove in North London. A very dramatic first leg that saw the Gunners come back from 2 down in 25 minutes to level at 90. This was some achievement for the hugely depleted squad and it means its winner takes it all tonight with the prize a meeting with Barcelona in Eindhoven. Leah is out as she has joined the ACL gang during the Man Utd game. With the lack of defenders the Gunners are playing a back 3 with Lotta, Raffaella and Jen Beatie in the middle. Kim Little is still out but Katie Foord may be back. Spoiler alert: She's not back. The She Wolves field a strong team the Lina "The Destroyer" Oberdorf and Alexandra Popp. Let's hope Popp doesn't pop up too often so we can avoid any more Popp popping up jokes. Soz!

Both teams pushing from the whistle with Stina pressing the keeper in the first minute. There is a VAR penalty check for a Wolfsberg penalty in the 3rd minute. Took an age and the ref stopped play which was weird but penalty declined and off-side given instead. HAHA. Stina breaks through and scores on 12 ⚽ running on to a pass from Walti. It goes to another VAR check for a foul by Stina but it's given without a ref check. Arsenal get their tails up now and are attacking but not breaking through. Pelova runs on to a good pass from Catley but is dispossessed in the box by Hendrich. It falls to Maritz but she blazes it over the bar. Arsenal are defending better although both keepers are called into action. The She Wolves start to come back into it a bit with 10 to go. They are rewarded when Jill Roord fires it home through a crowd of bodies from the edge of the box on 41. Arsenal respond but it's level again at the break.

Blackstenius puts it in the net in the 2nd minute. The crowd go wild. It's a great goal with a pass from Freda right through the midfield and defence to Maritz who crosses to Stina but it is eventually ruled out for off-side earlier in the move. Boooo. Ten minutes in and some sustained Wolfsburg pressure pays off when Popp pops up to head it in at the near post from a corner on 57. Gunners make some changes with Wienroither for Maritz and Hurtig for Stina. Weird taking you best striker off when you need a goal. Has Jonas got his maths wrong? Zinsberger has her usual nap to allow the girls to regroup on 70 minutes today. It's end to end and Jen goes up leaving just Lotte and Rafa. Pajor gets past then but Lotte makes an awesome tackle at the last second. Pajor then gives away a free kick. Catley's kick is recycled by Lotte and Jen heads it home on 77 ⚽. It takes an age for the resulting VAR check but who knows what they were checking? Measuring the gaps between their ears maybe. Gunners are level again⚖. Wienroither goes down heavily off the ball and is replaced by Danish youngster Kuhl. Hope it's not too bad but she was stretchered off. Spoiler alert it's yet another ACL. 😭 It's still level at 90 so extra time it is.

How deep can the depleted Gunners dig now to compete with the fresh legs of the Wolfsburg subs. Hurtig gets a great chance on 97 but it's well saved. Reds apply the pressure and Lotte nets after a scramble but it's ruled out for a foul. Jule Brand finally comes on for Wolfsburg at 100. It's level after the first 15 but the Arsenal legs are looking tired. Hope they can hold on. The second 15 is still end to end interrupted by the odd cramp break. Both sides want the winner. Katie McCabe comes so close when her cross goes over Frohms but it hits the crossbar. It's Lotte of the Gunners that makes the mistake that counts and the Wolfs substitutes combine to win back the ball and slot it home on 118. Lotte has played so well, really feel for her. Arsenal win a late corner but the ref points to a goal kick. It turns out it was off side but she didn't tell us. Injury time was painful to watch and but it finished with heartbreak. That a bunch of warriors this Arsenal team are. Depleted and tired, they took one of Europe's most successful clubs to the wire. It's the end of this journey but it's been a privilege to watch.

A shame about the result tonight as it could have gone either way but there were lots of tired legs and brains out there and it was a case of the next mistake could be to vital one. Arsenal's ridiculous injury list left them very thin on the bench with no real options to change it up or bring on fresh legs. Congratulations to the She Wolves and good luck in the Final 🤞. We set a new record for women's club football with 60063 people and 1 meerkat in the crowd. It was by far the best atmosphere of our visits here. The Gunners certainly making themselves heard.

POTM: goes to Jen Beatie for being not having played much this season to then come in and be immense at the back and then go up front and score a goal.

Refereeing was very different to all the other UWCL games we have been to with the hard interventions of VAR to absolutely no effect. Total waste of time.

The Scranometer had good night with a half pizza 🍕 in the ground. Hit the spot for a 8/10. Bonus was the stall outside the ground selling bags of sweets for £1 so it was foam bananas 🍌 for us on the train 🚃 home.

That's our European journey over for this year. It's been good fun and got to visit some top grounds and watch lots of elite footballers doing their thing. The highlight was the Chelsea win over Lyon with the VAR penalty in Fergie time and then the shootout win. We've met lots of nice Chelsea and Arsenal fans along the way too.

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