Football | Arsenal eye historic triumph

Women's Champions League final preview

Eighteen years after their last appearance in European football’s showpiece...

Arsenal are back on the grandest stage of all with dreams of ending a long wait for continental silverware.

Author - DJ

Standing in their way are the reigning champions, the formidable and much-admired Barcelona, who arrive in Lisbon seeking a third successive Women’s Champions League title. It promises to be a spectacular weekend in the Portuguese capital, a fitting setting for a clash of such stature.

The final will be staged at the sleek, 50,000-capacity José Alvalade Stadium, which was confirmed as a sell-out on Friday. Though vastly outnumbered, with only around 5,000 fans expected to travel from London compared with over 30,000 from Spain.

Arsenal will not be short of backing. Messages of support from players and staff throughout the club have filled the walls of their training ground, a sign of the collective spirit that has underpinned their European journey.

Can Arsenal pull off an upset?

Few would deny that Arsenal are the underdogs. But their path to the final has been built on resilience and revival. 

They overturned deficits in both the quarter-finals and semi-finals, seeing off Real Madrid and then Lyon with stirring second-leg performances. In the group stage, they bounced back from a bruising defeat away to Bayern Munich to top the group, all under the shadow of a managerial change.

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Their campaign began way back in the first qualifying round, where they cruised past Rangers before navigating tricky ties against Rosenborg and Häcken. In doing so, they became the first team in the competition’s history to reach the final after starting in the opening qualifying round.

In many ways, their entire season has felt like a comeback story. It began in turmoil and saw the departure of Jonas Eidevall in October. Under his successor, Renée Slegers, Arsenal have found new momentum. Now, they stand on the brink of something extraordinary. Can this exciting side make history?