Arsenal win Women's Champions League for first time in 18 years with victory over Barcelona

24 May 2025, 19:40 | Updated: 24 May 2025, 23:06

By Rose Morelli

@sadlittlejourno

Arsenal have won the Women's Champions League for the second time, with a 1-0 victory over favourites Barcelona.

They followed up their success from 2007 thanks to a second-half goal from substitute Stina Blackstenius in the final in Lisbon.

The only goal was scored in the 75th minute, after British forward Beth Mead passed to Swedish striker Blackstenius.

A close call did happen early in the match, when Arsenal took the lead in the 21st minute. Barcelona's Irene Paredes turned Chloe Kelly's cross into her net - but VAR ruled the British winger offside, concluding she had gone slightly too early.

Barcelona had been crowned European champions in three of the past four years, and were this year's favourites to win the League.

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Despite being the only English team to have won the women's competition, Arsenal entered the match as underdogs.

This was Arsenal boss Renee Slegers' first season with the club - she had previously commented that prior to the game, her team wanted to "show bravery" despite being seen as underdogs.

Slegers took over as Arsenal's manager in October last year, after former manager Jonas Eidevall delivered a disappointing season start.

Joint-winner of the Women's Super League Golden Boot Alessia Russo told TNT how hard the team had worked for the victory, saying how "amazing" it felt.

"We had to suffer a lot," she said. "They [Barcelona] are a top side. We had to be content and happy with not having the ball, knowing our moment would come. When our game-changers came on, our squad wanted it so badly.

"It feels surreal. We knew we could, we believed since our journey started. It was just about doing and doing it and we did."

Arsenal all-rounder Mariona Caldentey, who previously played for Barcelona for 10 years, also spoke about the challenges of facing her former side.

"[It was] really weird. A lot of emotions before and during the game, but now I'm playing for Arsenal and now I give everything to them."

"I can't believe it," she added. "Barca are an amazing team and we knew it was going to be hard. We suffered and we made it.

"We would have liked to have more of the ball. It's hard to defend all the time, but it was the game we had to play. We were mentally focused on that and it was perfect because we won."