golden blonde¹

always an angel, never a god

content warning: self-deprecating talk
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mid december 2022
elena had a good feeling about this. they beat lyon away by a margin of four goals, and although it might be unlikely that they'd score that many this time around, she still had a good feeling.

it was a cold thursday evening, so elena didn't expect a lot of supporters to show. but when their team bus arrived at emirates stadium, a large cheer erupted when the players exited the bus and into the tunnel.

bompastor had changed her lineup quite a bit with shifts in formations since the last time they faced arsenal, jonas on the other hand did not.

if he could have, jonas would have started both beth and kim; their lineup would have been unchanged. but due to beth's acl and kim's mcl sprain, jonas was forced to change his lineup.

leah would start for the first time in a couple of months and viv slotted into midfield alongside lia and frida.

elena had the utmost confidence in those three. if she wasn't on the field, there would be no other three players she'd trust more in that midfield.

like she said, elena was feeling good about the game today.

as soon as the whistle blew, elena's head emptied out any other thoughts. thoughts such as how she managed to be dropped in the home leg despite starting in the away leg, about how much she wanted to make it back into the starting eleven, about how she was freezing her ass off despite being layered in blankets.

she focused solely on the game.

as long as they didn't lose, they'd qualify for the knockouts. but arsenal intended to win, just as they did in october.

in the early minutes of the game, arsenal dominate possession. every attack started from the back, with either leah or lotte, and proceded down the wings. that was one of the first things elena noticed about the tempo of the game.

arsenal never went down the middle.

elena loved to bring the ball up in the middle of the pitch.

she wondered if jonas' tactics conflicted her playing style, and that was why she never seemed to get any playing time anymore.

lyon get the first corner of the game only 8 minutes in, which wasn't optimal for the defense, but arsenal dealt with it simply.

sitting beside noelle on the bench, elena discusses the holes in their defense with the swiss defender every time lyon push forward. although the french side was initially a bit uncomfortable with the ball, as each second passed, they only grew more confident in front of goal.

fifteen minutes in, viv goes down on the pitch. at first, elena's breath catches in her throat, but then she realizes that it was a tactical break. the rest of the players came over to the sideline to receive some tactics and some water before continuing the game.

not even two minutes later, laura's knee collides with selma bacha's knee and the austrian goes down clutching it. maybe elena had remembered how beth was clutching her knee when she went down, but she hoped that the physicality of this match wouldn't be too much for her teammates.

thankfully, she got up only minutes later muttering something about the cold weather and jogged back to her position seemingly fine.

their initial tactic was to implement a good press, move down the wings and be clinical in front of goal, but they had to switch those tactics only twenty minutes into the game.

arsenal were playing more defensive now, playing a mid block and ensuring that the ball went through lia before going out to the wings.

arsenal get their first corner in the 22nd minute, and if there was one things the players prided themselves on, it was set pieces. elena in particular loved to send in curling corners and free kicks into the box, but she was a far way away from ever doing it for arsenal.