Walti praises Arsenal for ‘taking momentum’ from Villa in 4-goal demolition

LIA WALTI hailed her Arsenal team-mates for playing Aston Villa “into the ground” in the Conti Cup semi-finals.

Stina Blackstenius stole the show as Arsenal stormed their way into the final by thrashing their opponents 4-0 on Wednesday night.

Two early goals in two minutes were among the efforts for the Swede at Meadow Park.

And she bagged a first-half hat-trick during her side's ruthless attacking shift.

Walti revealed Jonas Eidevall's aces had watched Arsenal men's 6-0 trouncing of Sheffield United in the Premier League on Monday.

And the WSL aces were eager to register a high-scoring triumph in last night's game.

The Switzerland midfielder, who made her 150th appearance for the Gunners in the match, said: “We all watched the men's game a couple of days ago.

"We said we'd like to be a little bit more comfortable at half-time.

“We wanted to go (hard) from the start, run them over and the ball went in at the right time and then we took the momentum from Aston Villa.

“We used the spaces they gave to us, and we were efficient in front of the ball in the first half and that made a difference.

“You could just see the fresh legs in the team and we have such a good competition with Stina and Frida (Maanum) coming in and Kyra (Cooney-Cross) and Leah (Williamson).

“They're great players, they kind of can push the team for a better performance.

“You could feel that we played them (Villa) into the ground, and they didn't really have a chance.”

The victory saw Arsenal reach back-to-back Women's League Cup finals for the first time under head coach Eidevall.

It also means a silverware double is still in their sights with the team just three points behind Chelsea and Manchester City in the top tier.

Of the victory, Eidevall said: “We want to