‘It’s my dream’: Villa and Arroyo edge closer to Wembley in Women’s FA Cup | OneFootball

While the new Aston Villa head coach Natalia Arroyo’s days working as a football journalist for the Catalan daily newspaper Ara are well behind her, she clearly still knows what runs through a sports writer’s mind, as she reflected on her side’s 3-2 victory over Brighton: “It wasn’t that difficult for the journalists, probably. It’s always more difficult when somebody scores in the last minute, those are the craziest ones to write!”

Indeed, thanks to Villa taking a 3-1 lead inside 55 minutes, this five-goal thriller of a Women’s FA Cup tie did not present late drama but it was no less significant, as it delivered the Spanish coach her first victory in charge of Villa in her second game, and could provide her team with a platform to build on for the remainder of the season.

“It’s something to start from, with more hope, more confidence, and I’m happy for the win,” said Arroyo, whose first action upon hearing the full-time whistle had been to turn, with both fists clenched in celebration, to exchange a high 10 and a hug with Shaun Goater.

Villa were 9-0 winners at home to lower-league Bristol Rovers in the previous fourth round of the Cup when playing under the interim leadership of the former Manchester City striker Goater, who has stayed on with the backroom staff. But there have been few other happy days for Villa this season, after a disappointing first half of the campaign and the departure of the manager, Robert de Pauw, in December.

Enter the 38-year-old former Barcelona youth player Arroyo, who was forced to retire from playing at 22 because of injury. She has said that her side will want to have possession and press as high as possible when they don’t. Villa will hope she can reproduce some of the magic that helped her guide her former club Real Sociedad to the runners-up spot in Spain in the first of her four years in charge there.

Her first game, at home to league leaders Chelsea, ended in a narrow 1-0 defeat after a late own goal. On Saturday, her team were more confident on the ball, but they fell behind to Nikita Parris’s dinked finish in the 45th minute. Arroyo, standing in the technical area wearing a long, unbranded black jacket, which accompanied the modern-day manager’s increasingly popular white trainers, raised an arm in frustration when the opener went in, but within moments she was exchanging high-fives with everybody on her bench as Anna Patten bundled in from a corner to equalise, just before half-time.

In Spain, Arroyo built something of a reputation for wise tactical analysis, so perhaps it was no surprise that at half-time she made subtle changes, particularly exploiting Rachel Daly’s No 10 role, and the hosts scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the second half, first through a Daly header before Chasity Grant’s powerful shot. Parris pulled one back but it was not enough.

“I have an amazing staff, making it really easy to show some of the clips [at half-time], to adjust to be aggressive out of possession,” said Arroyo, explaining her changes. “We wanted a No 8 and a 10, and we just balanced the positions and from that we were able to activate Chasity and Kirsty [Hanson] and they made the impact.”

Villa had been knocked out in the fourth round last term, poorly, losing at home to Everton. Now they are in Tuesday’s quarter-final draw. Arroyo was a cup finalist with Real Sociedad last season and said: “Imagining to be close to Wembley will be a dream come true. I asked them to make my dream possible, so let’s see what happens with the draw. We will fight until the end and if we’re close to being in the final, it will be amazing.”

Header image: [Photograph: Cody Froggatt/PA]