Arsenal stun favourites to win Champions League

Inspired by the past, Arsenal made more history in the Women's Champions League and pointed the way to the future.

- JAMIE BRAIDWOOD

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." Arsenal's players had spoken glowingly of the 2007 winners this week, the team who had led the way by winning the Uefa Women's Cup. The respect and inspiration between past and present was mutual and they met for lunch at Arsenal's training ground on Tuesday. Arsenal reaching another final 18 years on was for them as much as the current side, as well as a source of motivation. They felt like they could belong on this stage.

But the 2007 team did not face anything like this. That's not to be disrespectful of the previous era, but the game has come a long way in a short time and Barcelona and Spain have elevated its levels with their technical superiority.