Arsenal “humble for the occasion” but “here to win,” insists Slegers as Gunners face first European final in 18 years | OneFootball

Renée Slegers revealed that she is “very proud” of those involved with Arsenal’s progression to the UEFA Women’s Champions League final, as The Gunners prepare to face Barcelona at Lisbon’s Estádio José Alvalade on Saturday.

It is the first time that Arsenal, who remain the only English side to have won Europe’s elite women’s competition back in 2007, have reached the final since their two-legged victory over Umeå 18 years ago.

Barça are their opponents this time around, and having won the competition in each of the past two seasons, Pere Romeu’s side are considered by many to be the favourites ahead of kick-off.

“We respect Barcelona as a team,” Slegers explained to the media in her pre-match press conference on Friday evening.

“They’re a really good football team so we’re really humble for the occasion, but we’re here to win. We have to find ways to win and I am convinced that the game will shift in momentum. For us it’s going to be important that we deal with all moments really, really well in the game – so we need courage, we need discipline, we need to be switched on. We’re going to have to make a lot of decisions on the stage.”

Qualifying for this final would have been unthinkable less than a year ago, when The Gunners sacked Jonas Eidevall after a poor start to the 2024/25 Barclays Women’s Super League season. Their third-placed finish the season prior meant they’d had to navigate two tricky qualifying rounds to even secure their place in the UWCL group stage – and they have since become the first side to play 14 matches en route to a Champions League final.

Slegers recalled: “We started the mini-tournament early in the season, which didn’t start easy, and then we take ourselves into the group stage and there’s some challenging games there as well and some good opposition.”

“But I think for me the key moment was the second leg against Bayern at home, where we showed so much as a team. I think we’ve always known, and the players know themselves as well, that we’re a very good team. We’re a very good football team. But that was, for me, a key moment where I saw that we could win games in different ways.”

Arsenal take on Barcelona in the 2024/25 UEFA Women’s Champions League final, which gets underway at 17:00 BST [18:00 CEST] at Lisbon’s Estádio José Alvalade.