Inspired by the past, Arsenal made more history in the Women’s Champions League and pointed the way to the future. Against the odds, and after surviving everything Barcelona threw at them, they are champions of Europe again. The only English women’s club to win the competition does so 18 years on from their previous appearance in the final, and the scoreline remained the same: Stina Blackstenius rose from the bench, was played in by another substitute in Beth Mead, and fired Arsenal to the title while dethroning Barcelona.
Arsenal’s season was in disarray in September when they lost their opening game of the Champions League group stages 5-2 to Bayern Munich and head coach Jonas Eidevall departed days later. In Lisbon, Renee Slegers could observe a season that has not just been saved, or resurrected, but will go down as their greatest ever. In their biggest game of a generation, Arsenal showed their resilience again. “You struggle together, you suffer together, you find ways to win,” Slegers said. “We’ve done that.”
