Lina Hurtig’s late poke-in ensured Arsenal secured a spot in the Champions League knockout stage with two group games remaining, a 1-0 win over Juventus enough to put them clear at the expense of the Italian club.

The Gunners needed a win to ensure progression to the quarter-finals after Bayern Munich’s 1-1 draw with Vålerenga in Norway. Instead of the Group C standings being finely poised, Hurtig’s goal gave the Gunners the breathing room they so desperately wanted before they face Bayern at Meadow Park to very likely decide who tops the group.

Renée Slegers’s side were unchanged from the team that earned a comfortable 3-0 win over Tottenham at the weekend, Katie McCabe pushing forward when the Gunners were in possession leaving Leah Williamson, Steph Catley and Emily Fox to operate as a back three. It has been a successful play for Arsenal in recent weeks, the extra attacking player helping them pick open stubborn defences, but Juventus had done their homework and frustrated them for 89 minutes.

Slegers said there wouldn’t be “any sign of complacency” among the team despite the 4-0 defeat of Juventus in the reverse fixture the preceding week. It would be unfair to suggest that scoreline flattered Arsenal, but the game in Biella was far from easy. It took the Gunners until the 75th minute to get their second and put the game to bed, with the interim manager saying that had taken a lot out of them “physically and psychologically”.

At a bitterly cold Emirates Stadium, there was frustration as congestion getting into the ground meant that some fans missed the first 15 minutes and arrived to find their seats taken. The club had to open another block in the lower tier to find space for them. It was not ideal, but is ultimately a teething problem as the club balances the varying crowd sizes for women’s fixtures at the ground and the right levels of staffing required.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on which way you look at it, they didn’t miss much. Arsenal have scored 19 goals in six games since Jonas Eidevall departed and Slegers was appointed as interim manager, prior to the visit of Juventus, but against the Italian club it was 24 minutes before the home team had their first convincing chance. Frida Maanum capitalised on a Paulina Krumbiegel error, the Juventus defender gifting Arsenal the ball in the box, but the angle was tight and the Norwegian fired over, with a goal kick awarded despite the furious protestations of Slegers and Maanum that it should be a corner.

Other moments of note? Arsenal centre-back Leah Williamson taking a goal kick ahead of keeper Daphne van Domselaar. That was about it. Arsenal had dominated possession, having over 75% of the ball, but had just the one shot to show for it from the first half.

After the break, the story was similar, the home team struggling to break through the organised defensive line of the Italian side. Caitlin Foord had a half-chance in the 55th minute, sending the ball across the face of the goal a little too far ahead of Alessia Russo and Mariona Caldentey allowing Juve to comfortably clear.

They would go agonisingly close just a few minutes later in quick succession. First, when Katie McCabe’s backheel found Caldentey and the Spaniard played it centrally to an unmarked Maanum, but she put her effort wide of the near post, the fans’ half-celebrations quelled as the ball hit the electronic hoardings. Then, when a goalmouth scramble saw Foord have a shot blocked on the line.

After a lengthy conversation with Slegers in the dugout, Beth Mead was readied, alongside Stina Blackstenius, as Arsenal sought the goal that would help them secure their progression from the group stage.

Despite visibly tiring, the visiting team sensed they could snatch more than a point and Van Domselaar would be called into action for the first time with 15 minutes remaining, getting down to push away Arianna Caruso’s low effort towards the far corner.

Substitute Hurtig twice had the vocal 9,963 crowd gasping, the second of her two headers flying over the bar from the six yard line with the goal gaping and the keeper nowhere.

It felt like the odds were against them, but the Swede would be Arsenal’s saviour, poking Blackstenius’s cross off the foot of a defender and in before she could clear in the 89th minute to seal victory. There was relief in the celebrations. Slegers’ record remains close to unblemished, with six wins and a draw from seven matches. The Renéessance continues.