Russo's late header rescues a point for Arsenal against Aston Villa
Alessia Russo scored in the 85th minute to salvage a 1-1 draw for Arsenal against Aston Villa in the Women's Super League, England's top women's league, on Sunday.
Villa struck first in the 25th minute. Chasity Grant finished low into the bottom corner, and Lynn Wilms was the player who set her up. For most of the afternoon, that looked like being enough for the visitors.
Arsenal had other ideas. They had almost 65% of the possession, which means they had the ball for nearly two thirds of the game. They took 28 shots to Villa's one, and they had 56 touches inside the Villa penalty box to the visitors' four. A touch in the box is simply any time a player makes contact with the ball there, so the numbers show how much of the game was played in one half of the pitch.
Villa did have a chance of their own before the break. Grant got into a position to shoot but sent the ball high and wide of the far post. Arsenal kept knocking on the door, and the breakthrough finally came late on. Stina Blackstenius swung in a cross from the right, and Russo rose to head it home at the far post, the side of the goal furthest from where the ball was delivered.
The equaliser meant a point for Arsenal rather than two for Villa, and it came after a busy run for the holders. Arsenal had beaten Tottenham in the league and Benfica in the Champions League in back-to-back matches before this game. Renée Slegers, the Arsenal head coach, will still be frustrated with the result, though. Arsenal's 1-1 draw was their fourth home league game in a row without a win, according to Yahoo Sport.
For Villa, the result is a point taken from a game in which they barely got a shot away. They defended deep for long spells and made the most of their one clear chance, and that has earned them a share of the spoils. Their supporters will know that a single goal can carry a team a long way when the other side cannot break them down.
Arsenal's own match report describes the afternoon as a 1-1 draw, the same scoreline that the match was played to. For a side with so much of the ball, the outcome will feel like two dropped points. For a side that spent most of the game without it, it is a point that could have gone the other way.
