Arsenal needed a penalty in stoppage time to beat a Danish side containing several part-time players. Mariona Caldentey converted it after Selina Cerci was tripped, and the Gunners opened their Women's Champions League campaign with a 1-0 win that felt nothing like a win for most of the ninety minutes.
HB Koge arrived at the Emirates as heavy underdogs and left having made Arsenal look blunt, disorganised in possession and short of ideas. The scoreline flatters the hosts.
A goal ruled out and very little else
Arsenal thought they had broken through when Chloe Kelly steered an outside-of-the-boot finish past Alberte Vingum. VAR intervened. Stina Blackstenius was judged to have been offside and in the goalkeeper's eyeline, and the goal went.
Beyond that there was almost nothing clear-cut. Arsenal had the ball for long stretches and repeatedly gave it away in dangerous areas, letting Koge press and counter. The visitors defended with real organisation, and their manager Kristian Morch celebrated the half-time whistle like a man who knew exactly what his players were pulling off.
Slegers changed eight and then changed again
Renee Slegers had made eight changes from the side that salvaged a 1-1 draw with Manchester United at the weekend, with Chelsea to come on Sunday. Rotation was defensible. What followed was harder to defend.
She introduced Alessia Russo for Blackstenius at the break looking for a threat that never arrived. The second half repeated the first: possession without penetration, and decision-making that kept falling wide of the mark.
Arsenal eventually got there from twelve yards. Vingum got a hand to Caldentey's strike and still could not keep it out. The goalkeeper was named player of the match with a rating of 7.89, which tells you most of what you need to know about the game.
Familiar problems ahead of a difficult group
This is not an isolated off night. Arsenal drew 1-1 with Manchester United and were held scoreless by Crystal Palace, and the finishing problem has now followed them into Europe.
As the game wore on they seemed to chase volume rather than quality of chance, and the winner came from a piece of clumsy Koge defending rather than anything Arsenal constructed. With a trip to face Barcelona at the Nou Camp and a meeting with Lyon still to come in this league phase, the margin for that kind of performance disappears quickly.
Match facts: Arsenal 1-0 HB Koge, Women's Champions League league phase. Goal: Mariona Caldentey, penalty in stoppage time, awarded after Selina Cerci was fouled. A Chloe Kelly goal was disallowed following a VAR check for Stina Blackstenius being offside in the goalkeeper's eyeline. Renee Slegers made eight changes from the 1-1 draw with Manchester United and replaced Blackstenius with Alessia Russo at half-time. Koge goalkeeper Alberte Vingum was named player of the match with a rating of 7.89. Arsenal face Chelsea on Sunday at 16:30 BST, and later meet Barcelona and Lyon in this competition.
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