CNN
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When Arsenal last won the Women’s Champions League, the team’s star Leah Williamson was a 10-year-old mascot who grabbed the ball as she took the players onto the pitch.
On Saturday, 18 years later, Williamson’s defensive glow surprised the two-time defending champion and pre-game favourite Barcelona 1-0 in the final, causing the gunners to fall into the next European victory.
This is all the charming Barça teams that played in their record five consecutive finals, scoring 44 goals in the Champions League this season, earning just one embarrassment of all time. Few people expected Arsenal to abdicate such a team.
“We knew we were underdogs. We rarely get to play in the game when there’s little pressure on you,” Williamson later said, according to the club’s website. “So we said we were going out and going to enjoy it.”
Armed with such an attitude and uninterrupted by expectations, Arsenal created the goal for Stina Blackstenius in the 74th minute, one of its incredible performances, and proved the difference between the two teams.
Blackstenius was on the pitch in under ten minutes when she made a decisive contribution, recovering Beth Mead’s reverse pass on Barca’s defense in the box, controlling it with one touch and firing it across the goal’s face into the net.
It was she designed another chance, slamming her loose passes and taking the defense only to be blocked by goalkeeper Kata Kol.
And even if seven minutes of injury was added in front of thousands of gunner fans who traveled to Lisbon, Arsenal’s defense delved into clinging.
“This is probably the most difficult game I’ve ever played,” Arsenal manager Rene Sleggers later told reporters. “Barcelona has all the rotations and all the individual threats, so there’s so much to deal with today, players have to make decisions every second on the pitch.”
Barcelona had 14 shots in the second half alone, but their efforts either bouncing off the woodwork, missing out on goal, or were beaten by Daphne van Donceral.
The Spanish giants improved significantly in the second half after seeing off-collar before halftime, but lacked accuracy for the team seeking Europe’s fourth title in five years.
Arsenal players were typical in 22 minutes after Irene Purdes accidentally tapped the ball into the net as they tried to rule out the goal before it was ruled out after an offside VAR check.
“We weren’t at the highest level, but we gave it everything. In those circumstances, football sometimes punishes you,” last year’s Baron de Orle winner Aitana Bonmati said on the AP by AP. “We need to use what happened here for our benefit in the future.”