For Arsenal, this was as cruel an end as you could write. A historic Champions League semi-final with Wolfsburg, with a sold out Emirates Stadium and a record crowd for a women’s club match in England, did not finish with the outcome the majority of the 60,063 had longed for. But that is life, a reality this Arsenal team understands more than most, and from this heartbreak Jonas Eidevall’s side can instead take away something else.
It may not compensate for being denied a first Champions League final since 2007 in the 119th minute, but from being dealt the most rotten of hands - a squad decimated by injuries and torn apart by misfortune - Arsenal can still come away from this having produced an extraordinary night. What could have turned out to be a turgid season, given everything that has transpired against them, instead developed into this: a record crowd, a breathless tie, a night to redefine possibilities.
