Arsenal captain Kim Little on UWCL win: ‘Felt like our year’
Arsenal captain Kim Little admitted it felt like it was their year to win the Champions League after defeating Barcelona 1-0 in in the final in Lisbon on Saturday.
After nearly two decades, Arsenal made it to the Champions League final and won the competition for the second time in their history courtesy of Stina Blackstenius’ 74th minute strike.
Little, who joined the north London club the year after the inaugural European victory in 2007, admitted that they stuck to their game plan and it paid off.
“It felt like our year, and the game today was the same thing. It went our way. We played the game the way we wanted, and it went our way,” she told TNT after the game.
“In the other games we had two legs, so we had time to adjust. Today we knew it was one game and we had to executive our gameplan, we had to stop them and manage the space well, and the whole team did that incredibly well today, I’m so proud.”
Arsenal, whose 18-year gap between finals is the longest in the competition’s history, went into the clash as underdogs against holders Barcelona, who were on the hunt for a third consecutive Champions League trophy. The loss also destroyed the Catalan side’s hopes of a second successive quadruple.
Arsenal defended incredibly well to hold off Barcelona, though they looked nervous in moments and rode their luck.
Irene Paredes’ own-goal was ruled out as Frida Maanum was offside in the build up and Arsenal struggled to take their chances in front of goal, with several players squandering clear opportunities until Blackstenius found the back of the net.
The introduction of Blackstenius and Beth Mead injected fresh pace into their attack and caught Barcelona off guard. Mead’s through-ball found the Sweden international, who clinically finished for the only goal of the game.
“I’m so happy I could give a goal today. They said I should try to run in behind and try to stretch them but this is once again a big, big team performance. I’m so proud of our journey, how we came here and how we managed the game today,” Blackstenius also told TNT after the game.
“I just can’t believe it, all of it, it’s such a team performance from the very beginning until the very. I just can’t believe we won the Champions League and we get to celebrate, it hasn’t sunk in yet.”
The win in Lisbon capped off an incredible debut season for manager Renée Slegers, who took over at the club midway through the campaign.
“Of course I am super proud. You can have all these ideas in your head and show videos and use your tactics board but when the moment is there, you have to play an opponent who has been so good for so long and execute it and that says so much about the players,” she said.
“It’s probably the hardest game we have played so far. There was so much to deal with today. We were realistic about their quality but the way we managed the game, it was unbelievable and above all expectation. We were spot on.”
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