Arsenal Women win the Women's Champions League: Renee Slegers, Kim Little, Kelly Smith and more celebrate Gunners' win over Barcelona

Arsenal have won the Women's Champions League - and they look to be targeting the Women's Super League title next.

The Gunners beat Barcelona 1-0 thanks to Stina Blackstenius' second half strike, stunning the side who had won three of the last four titles.

A resolute defensive performance and some inspired substitutions from Renee Slegers saw them to victory in Lisbon and the club's first Women's Champions League since their maiden title in 2007.

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They remain the only English side to have won the competition, with Chelsea the only other side to have reached the final. They lost 4-0 to Barcelona in 2021.

The Blues are coming off the back of a domestic treble this season, and it appears Arsenal are targeting the league title next. The Gunners last won it in 2019 under Joe Montemurro.

Arsenal captain Kim Little told TNT Sports: "This is the ultimate for a club, but we've not won the league in a while, so we're due one of them. We'll enjoy this one first!"

Head coach Slegers too wants more silverware, told TNT Sports: "We only keep on building, keep believing in what we can do. And then we're building something really strong, keep building next season. And Arsenal want to keep winning trophies!"

Kelly: I was ready to take a break in Jan - now I've won the Champions League

Chloe Kelly has revealed that she was ready to take a break from football in January.

In a transfer saga, the winger publicly expressed her unhappiness at Man City, eventually moving to her former club Arsenal on loan.

She has rediscovered her form with the Gunners, and Saturday's Champions League win rounds off a real turnaround for Kelly, who is out of contract with Man City this summer.

"I'm on cloud nine right now" she told Sky Sports News. "I'm so grateful to Arsenal, I was ready to take a break from football in January and to be here now is crazy.

"I'm very emotional… Renee Slegers, what a woman.

"I appreciate these times. This club is a great football club, the girls are unbelievable and this is what this club deserves. Hopefully there'll be more.

"I'm feeling relaxed [about her contract situation]. If this is my last game for Arsenal, I'll forever be grateful for what they've done for me in my career. It's hard to put it into words but I hope for more."

Reflecting on the game, Kelly added: "What a graft. Barcelona are a top team and we knew we had to be comfortable being uncomfortable and that was our motto through the week.

"We rode the storm and for Stina to come on and do that is class."

Slegers offers insight into Barcelona win

Slegers also offered her view of how Arsenal beat Barcelona, with Pere Romeu's side the heavy favourites heading into the game.

She told DAZN: "There were a few key phases in the game when we knew we had to do really well. That was the start of the game, the first 10 to 20 minutes, we knew Barcelona were going to start fast and come here confident, so we have to stop them, which we did really well.

"Then we grew into the game, we created a couple of good, open chances. At the end of the first half, they had momentum, and we knew it was going to shift.

"They are so good on the ball and they locked us down in the final third, but we defended so well in the key moments.

"In the second half, they had a lot of possession. But again, how we suffered and dealt with different phases. The players that came on for us made a difference. I'm so proud of the team."

When discussing her substitutions, especially of Blackstenius and Beth Mead, Slegers added: "You make decisions all the times, with players on the pitch and on the sidelines and getting the timing right. But all the credit to the players and how they've dealt with this occasion has been superb.

"[We needed] fresh legs. It was really tough for the players on the pitch. It was a tough, physical game and we saw (Irene) Paredes on a yellow card and we want to threaten them more in behind."

Slegers replaced the outgoing Jonas Eidevall in October on an interim basis, before being appointed permanently in January. Arsenal's turnaround under the Dutchwoman has been quite remarkable, culminating in Saturday's win.

Former Arsenal striker Kelly Smith is now a coach with the club and, when asked what the difference has been under Slegers, she said on TNT Sports: "Just communication with the players, the relationship. She's been really honest with them.

"We knew what we had to do. Barcelona are an amazing team, we respect them, but we really believed we could win if we were all on our A-game, and we were."

Smith is also responsible for the development of Arsenal's attacking players, two of whom combined for the winning goal as Blackstenius turned home Mead's cross.

"We did a lot of individual stuff, finishing across the goal, left foot, right foot stuff. It paid off because we've just won the Champions League," Smith added. "It's been a hard two weeks getting the game plan together, but the players absolutely nailed it."

Little: It felt like our year

Little joined Arsenal in 2008, the year after the Gunners last won the Women's Champions League. She has now completed the set of club trophies a player can win, leading her team with a player of the match performance in Lisbon.

"We just had an incredible run in the Champions League. It felt like our year, we played the game the way we wanted," she added to TNT Sports.

"In the other games, we had two legs and had time to adjust. We had one game today and had to execute the game plan, manage the space well and the whole team did that. I'm so proud.

"We have an incredible squad, we showed that today. Especially with Beth and Stina coming on, then Lina (Hurtig) and Lotte (Wubben-Moy) who saw out the game.

"To win that trophy, then to lift it with Leah - a childhood Gooner and like myself had been at the club a long time - that was really special.

"It is truly special to be sitting here now off the back of winning the ultimate trophy. Definitely the best moment of my career."

'Individual stories make up this Arsenal victory'

Sky Sports News' Anton Toloui at the Estadio Jose Alvalade:

"From underdogs to the top dogs. From the guest house to the penthouse. For 18 long years Arsenal's players have been sleeping in the shadows cast by the 2007 team that won European glory. Today, they are able to have their sunniest day for almost two decades.

"Arsenal were heroic. First half they were clearly the better team. Second half it was backs to the wall, hit them on the break and a great robbery. Barcelona came here full of enthusiasm, full of confidence and huge swagger, but Arsenal delivered the gut punch and Barcelona just couldn't get back up.

"Think about the individual stories in the Arsenal team. Leah Williamson was mascot on the day Arsenal won the European Cup back in 2007, now she has gone from mascot to matchwinner, one of the games of her life.

"Lotte Wubben-Moy - Arsenal through and through - celebrating on the sidelines. Players like Chloe Kelly, who started the season as an afterthought at Manchester City, now she's a European champion. She's won one of the biggest medals of her career.

"Kim Little, who joined the club the year after Arsenal won the competition in 2007, now she's going to lift the trophy that she has been desperate to get her hands on. Renee Slegers even admitted herself she didn't see herself leading Arsenal out in the biggest game in club football earlier in the season.

"You need to remember where Arsenal were back in October. A terrible start to the WSL, lost 5-2 to Bayern Munich in the group stage of the Champions League - they were the first team to go from the first round of qualifying all the way through to the final.

"'Resilience' is the word that has been buzzing around the Arsenal camp all week. They have been coming from behind all Champions League - remember they were two goals behind after the first leg of the quarter-final against Real Madrid, somehow managed to turn it around.

"They were a goal behind against eight-time European champions Lyon in the semi-final and then put on one of the best performances an English team has ever put on in Europe - until tonight, because they have just bettered that.

"Slegers now will be seen not just as a coaching miracle worker, but also the fact she's done it in a completely different way to how Jonas Eidevall did it. She set aside 30-45 minutes every day for the players to come in to schedule one-on-one chats to talk about the tiniest little tactical thing or the biggest life thing. She is a players' coach. The players absolutely adore her.

"It's interesting when Arsenal were looking at candidates for the next head coach, they had some really big names who wanted that job. But Renee Slegers put herself out there, showed Arsenal's hierarchy 'I am the person who is going to do things my own way, differently'.

"It may seem laid back but it is in fact the most intrinsically planned and detailed plan that she can come up with. She's proved why she will be seen as one of the best head coaches in Europe.

"Arsenal were in bits at the beginning of the season, look where they are now."

Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games next season

From next season, Sky Sports' Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.

And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.

(c) Sky Sports 2025: Arsenal Women win the Women's Champions League: Renee Slegers, Kim Little, Kelly Smith and more celebrate Gunners' win over Barcelona