Stina Blackstenius won praise from head coach Jonas Eidevall for playing more centrally. Photo: Liam Asman/SPP

JONAS Eidevall heaped praise on Stina Blackstenius after the Swedish striker came off the substitutes’ bench to fire Arsenal into the Continental Cup final on Wednesday night.

Blackstenius pounced from close range in extra-time to earn the Gunners a 1-0 victory over rivals Manchester City following what was a cagey semi-final showdown at Meadow Park.

The win was the perfect mood-lifter after Arsenal had been held to a goalless draw away to West Ham on Sunday, handing Chelsea what could prove an unassailable advantage in the race for the Women’s Super League title. Blackstenius has been guilty of occasionally drifting out wide when the north Londoners have been searching for goals, but Eidevall has always been confident that the Arsenal number 25 would sharpen her shooting boots.

The Gunners’ head coach said: “When you look at Stina’s shots tonight and look at how central those shots are, that shows she was working well in her position.

“We came into a phase where Stina was working a bit too much outside on the flanks and she had a couple of games where she didn’t get the goal-scoring opportunities.

“I know Stina will score a lot of goals, it has been a matter of getting her more central, in front of goal, trust more that the ball will go there and not going too early.

“You see tonight she had four or five really good opportunities. She is working really, really well on that. People don’t realise that at West Ham because they are focusing on different things but I see that.”

Arsenal will now face either West Ham or Chelsea in the final at Selhurst Park on March 5. That semi-final was kicking off last night (Thursday) as the Tribune was going to press.

Arsenal could have avoided extra-time against Man City had they taken one of their late, late chances. Blackstenius saw her shot on the turn thwarted by goalkeeper Sandy MacIver, while Lina Hurtig, who would later set-up the winner, glanced a header just wide.

Eidevall joked “why couldn’t we have scored just before, and we didn’t go to extra-time!”, before revealing his pride at the resilience his side displayed during those additional minutes.

He added: “Those 27 minutes we played builds a lot of character and culture, and we can really show determination and grit as a team in those moments. If we can do that all the time, that’s something we can build on.

“Don’t forget, we played Sunday night and they played on Saturday lunchtime so we actually lost 36 hours of preparation for this game, so I’m really proud of the effort we had on the pitch.”

Arsenal return to league action tomorrow (Saturday) with an almost predictable fixture – away to Man City. And Eidevall doesn’t think beating the cup holders in midweek will have any bearing on their next encounter at the Academy Stadium.

“It’s a completely new match,” he said. “Both teams wanted to win and play in the final so we had to be at our very best.

“It was a strong performance against a strong opponent. I thought it was a game decided by small margins and we worked really hard to get those margins on our side, but we have to be humble and say that City also did a lot of things really well.”

Arsenal go into Saturday’s 12.30pm kick-off sitting third in the Women’s Super League table, three points behind Manchester United and five points behind leaders Chelsea, albeit with a game in hand over both sides.