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The game plan was prepared, the video analysis had been cut and the tactics board was set out, ready to go. The substitutes, including the two players who would combine to become Arsenal’s match-winners, had received their roles for the week before the Women’s Champions League final: they would pretend to play like Barcelona, to deploy their shape in training and replicate their attacking movements, rotations and overloads against Arsenal’s starting line-up.
Arsenal felt ready as they arrived at the Jose Alvalade Stadium. On the day of the club’s biggest game in a generation, against the best team in the world, there was a sense of calm. They were relaxed and knew the work had been done.
But having a plan is one thing, executing it is another. In Lisbon, Arsenal pulled off both to absolute perfection as Renee Slegers and her coaching staff masterminded the 1-0 victory over Barcelona, shutting out a side that had scored 112 goals in 30 league games this season.
“We had the game of our lives,” said Leah Williamson, who was immense alongside Steph Catley in the heart of defence. “We wanted to defend for our lives,” said Caitlin Foord, the flying winger who at one stage celebrated a blocked cross as if scoring a goal. “Nothing was getting through us.”
Slegers had visualed everything but if there was one thing she had underestimated it was how committed to the game plan her players could be. “You have all these ideas in your head but when the moment is there, you have to play an opponent who has been so good for so long and you execute it, and that says so much about the players,” Slegers said. “The players have to make decisions every single step of the way. The way we managed the game, it was unbelievable and above all expectation. We were spot on.”
It was a triumph for Slegers, the perfect end to a season that began as assistant coach to Jonas Eidevall. The 36-year-old was initially hesitant about putting her name forward to succeed Eidevall permanently, and had to be convinced to do so after making an impressive start to her interim spell. There were other candidates for Arsenal to consider, with more experience, but Slegers kept displaying reasons to trust her until she was the obvious choice.
Slegers’ success this season was in lifting Arsenal up following their poor start to the campaign and creating an environment where her players could feel free on the pitch. But the run in the Champions League was tougher, requiring more resilience, as Arsenal came from behind in the group stages and then in the quarter-final and semi-final comebacks against Real Madrid and Lyon.
The final brought a different level of commitment and the need for constant focus. After studying Barcelona, Arsenal found a way where they could learn their patterns. “The players that knew they weren't starting earlier in the week were Barcelona throughout training,” said Beth Mead, who came on to set up Stina Blackstenius’ winner. “We made it super hard.”
Between them, Arsenal’s analysts and substitutes developed a model of Barcelona that the starting team had to figure out. “We spoke a lot about their limitations and how best to deal with them,” Kim Little said. “We tried some different things during the week that didn’t work well and tried to play against that with our players. And we changed it to a way that we felt like we could accept a lot of their runs and movement, but also allow them to play mostly in front of us.”
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It left no surprises during the final, Arsenal were able to read Barcelona throughout. “I think the game planned out exactly how we expected it to,” Foord said. “They wanted to overload us in the midfield and that's why me and Chloe [Kelly] had to work so hard to get down and to help the midfield out and keep them to one side.” Little agreed. “It was the perfect execution of a game plan, which as a footballer is one of the best things.”
There would be, of course, a lot of suffering. “You can see it towards the end, we’re defending for our lives,” said Catley. “But we said we would have to do that to get this win. We were all up for it.”
“They had a lot of possession, but again, I think how we suffer and how we deal with different phases in the game,” Slegers said. “The players then come on for us and make a difference.”
And in the end it was Barcelona who felt the pain. “Absolutely devastated, I don't believe it,” said Aitana Bonmati. “I just want to start the game again and do it differently.”