Arsenal up against the best…

Morning all.

Whilst Mikel Arteta’s men couldn’t quite make to the Champions League Final, Renee Slegers’ side did and that final takes place tonight in Lisbon at 6pm, 5pm UK time.

Barcelona are probably the best women’s team in the game right now and have been for while. This is their sixth final in seven years including their fifth in a row. Their first big trophy in this competition came in 2021 after thumping Chelsea 4-0. They were successful in 2023 and 2024 too beating Wolfsburg and Lyon respectively.

Since their 2-0 defeat at Manchester City in the opening game of the competition, Barcelona have won nine straight Champions League matches including the last two which were both a 4-1 thrashing of Chelsea. They have scored 44 goals scored during that run.

Pere Romeu, Barcelona coach:

“One of the things I most enjoy as a coach is analysing the opposition and preparing our game plan. We have studied Arsenal very hard, and it’s very clear that they are a brave team that need very little elaboration in their play in order to get high up the pitch and attack you.They are aggressively competitive in a sporting sense. We’ve done exhaustive work on trying to break them down, and we’ve come up with our own conclusions about how we think we can tilt the match towards what we want it to be.”

Yes, it’s going to be tough for Arsenal to get the better of the Catalan giants.

There is no doubting the vast improvement of Arsenal since Renée Slegers took over as manager. Like the men, the women have finished second in the league but I very much doubt even the staunchest of fans believed Slegers would take the team to a Champions League final when she replaced Jonas Eidevall back in October and just days after Bayern Munich thrashed them 5-2.

This group of players have never made it to a Champions League final before, not together anyway but for a certain Mariona Caldentey, this will be her sixth appearance, only this time, she won’t be playing for Barcelona. No, the WSL player of this season will be lining up alongside her Arsenal teammates. What a great signing she has proved to be.

Renée Slegers:

”We respect them highly as a team. They’re very intelligent players, all of them, and technically capable, so it’s going to be a new challenge. I think that it’s a challenge that we haven’t faced yet in the league or in the Champions League. We’re going to try to replicate as many moments as possible in training and in meetings and prepare the players for everything that’s going to come. But even the pressure and the day of the final and all the aspects of it, we’re going to try and prepare for. But I think when the moment is there, it’s going to be so special.”

I would imagine Slegers and her players have watched the two Barcelona v Chelsea matches more than once by now to analyse where their strengths are and what they are. If there are any weaknesses to Barcelona’s game, having a plan to exploit them will be key. I doubt there will be many nerves in the Barca camp but if they are at all complacent, then game on.

If our players can show the kind of spirit, aggression and determination they did in Spain to overturn a 2-0 deficit against Real Madrid, or in France when trailing 2-1 from the first leg against Lyon to then beat them 4-1, they’ll have a chance tonight.

Catch up in the comments.