Arsenal Ladies cruise to Euro win

By Tony Leighton

England Under-19 star Flaherty opened the scoring for Arsenal

Arsenal have one foot in the quarter-finals of the Women's Champions League after a 3-0 win at Sparta Prague in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie.

England Under-19 defender Gilly Flaherty started things when she scored her first of the season on 11 minutes.

Republic of Ireland defender Ciara Grant headed home Rachel Yankey's corner to make it 2-0 16 minutes later.

Yankey, Jayne Ludlow and Helen Lander all missed first-half chances before Kim Little's penalty made it 3-0.

Further chances went begging, while at the other end the home side might also have got a goal or two in the closing stages.

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"Prague are a decent team who can suck you in then hit you on the break, so we'll be taking nothing for granted in the second leg," said Gunners manager Tony Gervaise.

"But if we can play as we did today and be that bit sharper in front of goal, we should be good enough to go through.

"We controlled the game throughout and played really well in spells.

"The only negative was not scoring more but we kept a clean sheet and that's vital with the second leg in mind."

The Gunners should comfortably get through next Wednesday's home leg at Borehamwood FC, after a solid display in Prague.