It was meant to be Chelsea. It was meant to be Sonia Bompastor, the European specialist, and the one particular person to have conquered the Champions League as a participant and a coach thrice.
However Chelsea couldn’t do what Arsenal have. They may not beat Barcelona.
Renee Slegers led her group as much as the winner’s podium on the Estadio Jose Alvalade, with realisation solely simply setting in, as unassuming as ever in membership shorts and t-shirt, boots on, as if she had been main an everyday coaching session.
Moments later she waded by means of the glitter and pink and white streamers after Kim Little and Leah Williamson collectively hoisted the Champions League trophy aloft, its glare reflecting the scorching warmth of the Lisbon solar, and was embraced by her household.
The triumph was Arsenal’s, however the architect was Slegers.
“We changed the game plan in the week and it paid off,” Williamson, who was a colossus on the again, making 14 clearances and two goal-saving blocks, revealed to TNT Sports activities. “We knew we had to have the game of our lives.”
The final time Arsenal received this competitors towards Sweden’s Umea in 2007, Williamson was additionally there, however as a ball lady whereas taking part in within the membership’s world-renowned academy system as a 10-year-old. 18 years later she is writing her personal historical past.
The enormity of the achievement felt akin to a mic drop second in some ways. Arsenal have undergone a exceptional transformation this season however only a few outdoors the membership – pundits and followers alike – believed it was attainable to beat bewitching Barcelona, winners in three of the previous 4 campaigns, on the largest stage.
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Renee Slegers insists there may be much more to return from her Arsenal facet after the Gunners clinched a sensational Girls’s Champions League title with victory over Barcelona
It is a group whose midfield accommodates Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas, recipients of the final 4 Ballon d’Or awards. A group that had scored at the very least as soon as in every of their final 41 video games. A group that had netted 19 targets within the three video games main as much as Saturday’s remaining.
A group that put eight previous home treble-winning Chelsea within the semi-finals. Eight. Golden-age stuff.
“We were born for these types of matches,” peerless Bonmati stated in her preview interview. The midfielder, broadly thought of as essentially the most technically gifted of any presently within the girls’s recreation, took six pictures, three of which wanted saving by Daphne van Domselaar. She created simply as many possibilities. Her 80 touches had been double what Little (41) managed in Arsenal’s midfield. And but none of that mattered in the long run.
Arsenal had been capable of suppress and limit Barcelona in a approach only a few groups can. They scored by one substitute teeing up one other. They performed in moments, had been intelligent and extra streetwise, underpinned by a perception that has propelled them from the very first qualifying spherical to champions.
Stina Blackstenius was arrange by fellow substitute Beth Mead to attain the sport’s winner
No group has ever lifted the European trophy having needed to navigate 15 video games, nor needed to overturn first-leg deficits in three separate ties. Dethroning Europe’s main drive within the remaining was becoming, a microcosm of the wrestle endured simply to get there.
In the event that they had been dwarfed by the magnitude of the event or may of their opponent, they didn’t present it. The north Londoners have been resurgent ever since Slegers took cost forward of matchday two of this competitors, charging by means of some groups and combating again towards others. Defeats to Bayern Munich (below Jonas Eidevall), Actual Madrid and Lyon alongside the best way all appear distant, and but the adversity of these losses feels unusually related.
Setbacks have come to outline Arsenal this season. They battled from 2-0 down on the quarter-final stage and, much more stunningly, from 2-1 down within the final 4.
Within the final three WSL video games previous the ultimate, they shipped a complete of 13 targets, thrashed by each Aston Villa and Brighton.
Stina Blackstenius was solely on the pitch for seven minutes earlier than scoring
However current behind the scenes has been a reassuring calmness. A determine of composure and consistency and honesty. Slegers’ construction and course of has had real therapeutic powers on this group, and prompted a seismic shift from underachievers to historical past makers.
A group fragmented below predecessor Eidevall – usually criticised for his emotional decision-making in the direction of the top – is now unified. Content material with taking part in alternative ways and completely different kinds as a result of it is all a part of a fastidiously constructed tactical plan.
“We know how good we are,” Slegers mirrored afterwards, nonetheless sporting the identical humble smile. “We knew momentum would shift, maybe other people were thinking something else, but that’s what we believed.
Renee Slegers has delivered European glory in her first season in cost
“In all the phases, the mentality and resilience, our belief was incredible.”
Maybe the group’s resolve is greatest summed up by captain Little, solely two years Slegers’ junior, and the one survivor from their first European title: “It always felt like our year.”
To have triumphed towards such unfavourable odds arguably makes this Arsenal’s biggest second.
Their fearlessness has been richly rewarded. Slegers, a former academy participant herself, has delivered the silverware they’ve so lengthy craved, and in doing so reimagined Arsenal’s place in sporting historical past.
Probably the most adorned girls’s facet in English soccer can name themselves European champions as soon as once more.
